1. Enhance yourself and think productively- If you are constantly considering post ideas while your working away at work, or considering new ideas for a project outside of work, you might stretch your productive thoughts of the day into something that can actually have take away value.  Posting in a way that seeks to encourage and/or teach other people will also stretch your thought process. Always tryign to learn for yourself and teach others sharpens your mind and keeps your intelligence active.  As much as I learn every time I dive into a new idea for a post, or a step by step process I’m wanting to learn more about… I walk away in small but real ways a more experienced and diverse person. There is huge value in that.

2. Teach yourself and learn something – My pretty knowledgeable older brother once told me that the best way to learn something is to create something yourself. Put together an article or a step by step list of how to accomplish something. Once you’ve done some research and put something together you will realize you’ve taught yourself. Blogging is extremely effective for this, and in the process others can learn from your discoveries.

Example? Why is it good to TWEET and MEET? Well.. put together a slide show on the value of connecting w/ your twitter friends, throw in some statistics you find, talk to some people who’ve had  a good experience, and by the end of the slide show, you just might have a compelling argument, and understand the value a little better yourself.

3. Become a better writer – Expand your skill set. Are you a good writer? Would you like to be? The only way to get better, and continue to expand on the comfort level of your writing is to do it more often. Sitting down w/ a blog to lay out your productive thoughts of the day or week is an extremely beneficial exercise and doing this may help you become a better writer for things you need to do at work.

4. Develop your thoughts - Did you ever have a great idea or experience a spark of interest in something, and then forget all about it? A professional blog is a place to expand on that spark rather than forgetting it.

5. Create some credibility- If you’re someone who seeks to be involved in the social media realm, someone who claims to think creatively, or someone who says they have a strong work ethic.. prove those things here (on your blog) and create some credibility for yourself. This is an area where you can push the envelope, reveal your willingness to consider, learn and explore different ideas and discuss current trends in your profession. Whether that means a political discussion, a break down how-to of a real estate agents in today’s economy, discussing the current market conditions and how different businesses are effected, sharing your struggles and frustrations with what the radio advertising industry has become, or exploring ways that new media can effect the PR industry and therefore various clients — write about it, think about it, explore it, and prove that you’re the employee that’s actively thinking about what’s next.  Become credible.

Success is acheived by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.

- Marilyn vos Savant (American Journalist)

I have learned lately that as you get further and further into your respective field or industry, some of the most important things you will learn are about yourself. You will realize what your own strengths and weaknesses are and this is an incredibly valuable lesson to learn. You’ll figure out what you’re good at, what you aren’t so good at, what you enjoy, what you can’t stand, what you don’t mind, and what you’re asked to do because your the best at it.

I think it’s invaluable to realize what you want to do in life and in your respective career and what you don’t want to do. It’s also just as important to recognize what you are aren’t great at, as it is to know where your strengths lie.  

I had decided this a couple months ago, as I analyzed my own strengths and weaknesses in the field of public relations, and I was recently given an amazing bit of advice that backed up my own belief.  Many management programs will focus on strength and weaknesses and once you can label what those are for you, they focus you on your weaknesses with the intention on improving you and making you better and more able in those areas. Now – this may sound like a great idea, but this smart and successful woman giving me this advice painted a different picture for me. Why in the world would you categorize your strengths and weakness and what you enjoy vs. what you don’t, only to zero in on what you’re bad at? If you are a great writer, and a great speaker, why in the world wouldn’t you focus on those areas in order to better yourself, and get better in an area where you clearly have talent? If you can think on your feet, and are a fantastic sales person, or pitcher – then why would you sit yourself down and put pen to paper (or typing fingers to mac book air… whatever) and force yourself to learn to be a good writer? Exactly. You wouldn’t, or at least you wouldn’t enjoy it.

It makes very little sense to focus on the negative and/or weakness and beat yourself up for it. The clarity and sense is in focusing on what you love to do, and improving on that skill that you are good at until you can rightfully call it an area of expertise.

I’ve taken this lessons and I am letting it direct the rest of my career. Money shouldn’t lead you, acheiving fame shouldn’t direct your path, happiness and contentment – enjoyment in the workplace SHOULD! So figure out what you love to do – and if you learn to do that well, the money and success will soon catch up to you.

At times, our strengths propel us so far forward we can no longer endure our weaknesses and perish from them.

- Friedrich Nietzsche (German Classical Scholar, Philosopher & Critic of Culture 1844-1900).

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 complaints 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 consumers 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…

I have heard arguments both for and against blogging or twittering on behalf of a corporation. According to MediaWeek for the last several years, new marketing experts have implored corporations to “join the conversation,” namely through blogging. The problem being is that currently, several years into the blogging phenomenon, not many consumers trust these corporate blogs.  Personally, there are many corporate blogs I read, trust and enjoy. One of them is the Google Reader blog. I find it informative, personal and easy to relate to in the first person plural tone in which it is written. I think it’s possible to have a successful corporate blogging experience.  AdAge reported that 20% of the Fortune 500 have blogs.   Chris Baggott says, that “almost every one of those blogs are the traditional C-level, Thought Leadership kind of blather.” He claims that people don’t trust the C-level. The only successful corporate blogging approach is one that includes employees, because that’s where the trust factor comes in. Employees are the credible source. Does that mean that we can twitter or blog with a company/brand name if we first explain (in our profiles) that we are (name) blogging on behalf of (company) ??  Is that simple acknowledgement, of an individual actually typing the posts or sending the tweets, enough to earn a consumers trust?

I liked these Five Steps to a Successful Corporate Twitter Presence on how best to use corporate twitter accounts, when you do want to use a brand/company name for your twitter.

1. Listen. It’s easy to set up and subscribe to a search of your brand or company name.
2. Add value. Provide useful content for those that choose to follow you.
3. Only follow when followed or mentioned. Having an anonymous entity follow you is a bit like receiving spam – you don’t know who it is or why you’re getting it. If your following:followers ratio is more than 2:1 then you are probably being a bit desperate.
4. Reply. Respond to every tweet directed at you.
5. Use replies rather than direct messages. Be transparent about what you’re saying to others on Twitter.

Is it a good move to introduce a blog for a personal brand or company if it’s the behind the scenes employees that do the posting and tweeting and own up to it?? Or is this still a risk for consumer mis-trust? What do you think?

If public relations can save the day by setting up a strong brand image, a big part of this will mean building an online community – which is a great way to converse with your customers.  It all depends on what you want you’re brand to say. Think about it this way if you could lift your logo and have invisible tag-lines/messages underneath what would they be? What do you want your brands image to communicate to the customer who may be hesitant to buy/trust/get on board? Here are some important underlying themes that I believe brands should adopt (right now especially) in order to be successful with their customers in this economy:

- Your brand should care about the customers.
- Your brand should reach out to them online through your network/community.
- Your brand should take the time to listen to it’s customers/users and hear what suggestions and feedback they might have. USE Twitter, Facebook, forums, whatever just GET INTERACTIVE (they are plenty of outlets).

Brand perception is the key to success.  It’s all about whether or not the customer can see value in your product.  Your job is to see that they do see value and can trust you/your brand.  What extra steps do you think can be made to encourage the trust and loyalty of your consumers by improving the overall perception of your personal brand?

According to Danny Flamberg’s “Making Sense of Social Media”, (and I think he’s nailed in on the head here) the critical questions for marketers are: How do we insert ourselves credibly into these networks and conversations? What’s the optimal use of this two-way communication and distribution channel?

I reviewed Flamberg’s advice on how to seed social media into a marketing strategy and I’ve altered his steps here a bit, condensed them into what I believe to be the important 3 points.

1. FIND YOUR PEEPS
Who is your target market/audience? Find them and intersect them! Once you find them watch them and learn about them, look for patterns, do this until you understand them!

2. PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD
Social networks give brands the opportunity to expose and share their knowledge and “showcase their expertise and float trial balloons”. This is an opportunity to show the confidence you have in your brand! (Most successful entrepreneurs aren’t shy — so this shouldn’t be an issue.) Put the best product you have to offer out there!

3. DON’T BE AFRAID OF TRIAL AND ERROR
These are the early stages. It’s a chance to bounce ideas of your people, your fans, your customers, see what they like and what they don’t. Gage how they feel from their response to the content you’ve put out there. Ask them to participate and give you feedback. This is a chance for trial and error. This is a chance for your brand to learn the way to success.

Another good point that Flamberg makes is that “social media is like talk radio”. Only a small percent of listeners actually call, but everyone is listening. The point of having a network is that seeing what’s going on and watching people experiment. So remember, that even though there are active players, there is a much larger inactive passive audience watching what you do, and you need to cater to them as well — after all they are the majority. Remember, three out of four of  U.S. adults (with web access) are social web-ing to share info! Let that be your information that is being shared. Follow these steps to get you or your company’s personal brand out there as part of the information that people are sharing. Everyday you aren’t taking advantage of the networks that are out there is another day of opportunity for your brand that goes un-embarked upon. Go back and see my blog from July,  How to use Social Media in PR, for some good points on why it’s important that you begin to use social media for your company/client/personal brand if you haven’t already.