Survey on PR Certificate Program

I am conducting a survey for Hood College in Frederick, Md., where I am an adjunct professor. The purpose of the survey is to measure the level of interest in a PR certificate program at Hood. I would appreciate it if you would take a few moments to complete the survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DPMCLHH.

I would also be interested in your comments about the value of a certificate program in public relations. Thanks.

-Fred Whiting, APR
Adjunct Instructor, Hood College
Phone: 301-216-0203
E-mail: whtngfrd@msn.com
“Committed to the marketing of ideas”

6 ways to build credibility for your PR brand, online

Why you need to earn the trust of your customers or constituents

We live in jaded times.  People have become cynical because of the companies and leaders who have lied to them.  Advertising is not powerless, but it no longer holds the influential sway it once did.

You probably already know that you and your company have to build your case for everything you sell, with complete transparency and reliance on third-party endorsements.  During tough economic times, people are highly discerning about how they spend their money, and will gravitate to professionals, agencies, brands, products, and organizations they find trustworthy.  Having a robust online presence — with images and video they can see, and content and testimonials they can read — is one of the best ways you can earn this trust.

Take steps to build the search engine optimization of your website

As people search for your company online — or keywords associated with your business or  nonprofit organization — they will tend to select the top ranking search engine results, as well as companies and organizations that have many search engine results.  Market researchers have also established that people place increased confidence in companies that have established a social media presence, including Facebook, Google, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles and accounts.  Therefore, taking steps to improve your company’s SEO is another important way to build trust in your business.

When you look like you care and are passionate about your business or mission, people will begin to believe in you.  Fortunately, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to build online credibility.  But it will take planning and effort, and if you are behind the eight ball now, you do need to get started.  Here are some sure-fire ways to build credibility in your brand online.

1. Take lots of photographs and post them frequently. You know how they call Missouri the “Show Me” state?  In this economy, every state is the “Show Me” state.  Your inventory of online photographs must include photos of yourself and every staff member, as well as the products, and services you offer.  I still see public relations agency websites without photographs.  They will not fly.  People need to see it to believe it.  For maximum searchability, post your photographs on Facebook, Google Profiles and Maps, Yelp, and Flickr.

2. Assertively collect testimonials and reviews: Credibility in this economy is everything, and there are few more effective ways to build trust in your company than with testimonials.  You need to ask your past and existing clients, customers, and vendors to post testimonials for you on LinkedIn.  You may find these testimonials are easier to obtain if you begin with writing testimonials for your clients and partners.

What lends even more credibility power to the Linked In testimonials you re-publish on your website?  Photographs and real names of your endorsers and reviewers.  Don’t forget, you can also collect video testimonials.  No endorsement is more compelling.

Reviews are different.  You really should not solicit online reviews, either for yourself or for a client, such as those found on Yelp, Google, and TripAdvisor.  It violates the terms of service for these platforms. However, you can encourage people to post reviews by establishing a business listing on review sites, including photographs, URL, and contact information.  And once you have reviews, you can link to those reviews from your social media and websites, including the review icon, which may encourage even more reviews.  And, as mentioned, you could always ask your repeat customers and regular clients for endorsements or video testimonials.

3. Produce YouTube video: 25% of search is processing through YouTube.  In search results, people tend to click on links with videos more frequently than those without video -  even if the video link itself is ranked lower in search results.  And there is no better way to tell your story, or earn trust with your target audience, than to make your case “in person’’  Video is no longer an option; it is a requirement if you are serious about marketing your business or nonprofit organization.

Are you worried about production quality? You should strive for a decent level of production quality, yes.  You should use a great camera, and proper lighting and microphones.  Or, hire a video production company to produce affordable videos for you.

4. Start blogging: It seems incredible to me — that in 2010 — people who call themselves professional communicators still have not invested the time it takes to learn how to navigate and compose blog entries about their work and for their clients.  If you can write a press release,  you can and should be blogging.  Search engines love blogs; they’re great for driving traffic back to your website.  But there are other benefits. Blogs are an effective way to present your subject matter expertise, which builds trust in you and your business.  They can be easily linked, shared, and fed into your social media platforms, and other people can easily share your  posts on their sites.  Not every blogger is lucky to receive many useful comments, but when you do receive feedback, you may find it useful.If you don’t have a blog on your LinkedIn profile right now, you are missing out on an opportunity to promote yourself and your brand.

One blogging bonus — that you don’t often hear people talking about — is that the action of formulating and shaping your thoughts into text and images, and the discipline of routinely blogging about your services, industry, and issues, will help you constantly examine and refine how you present yourself and your business, or your nonprofit’s mission, or your clients.  It’s just a great mental workout, which is why I recommend it for everyone. My experience with blogging is that it has helped me become more articulate and confident in client meetings, and as a speaker.

5. Comment on popular blogs and online news articles: Search engines rely on the number of inbound links you have to your website to determine if your web site is popular and reputable enough to bump to the top pages of search engine rankings.  There are two very easy and legitimate ways to create inbound links.  First, link to your web site from all of your social media, YouTube videos, blog posts.  Secondly, whenever you comment on blogs and online news articles about your industry, you usually have to add your name, email, and website URL.  Each of those comments will link back to your site as an inbound link, and will boost your rankings.  So, it pays to express your opinion, especially on popular blogs.

Don’t believe it?  I just checked my Google search engine results for blog posts for the name of my company.  Between my blog posts and comments, there are more than 76,000 search engine results. Do you think I could have purchased that kind of exposure?  I couldn’t.  It’s all the result from blogging and commenting on reputable blogs.

6. Update your web site. Your website will typically appear in the top search engine results for your company name, and if you’re fortunate and strategic, for your industry, as well.  More than 80% of web users click on the first listings they find online.  The kinds of changes you should be making now?  Featuring your social media links, revising copy to contain keywords (words and phrases for which an organization’s customers may search for online), and adding video, photographs, and PDF files.  Yes, PDF files are now searchable.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Sure, Mary, but easier said than done,” then consider creating an actionable online marketing plan, asking for help, if needed.  If I can do it, so can you.

Questions?  Comments?

What is your experience with earning the trust of your customers?  How do you think the economy affects people’s ability to develop trust in your brand?  Feel free to share your insights in the comments (remember how good it will be for your SEO!)

Twitter best practices for PR professionals

Mary Fletcher Jones provides Twitter tips

Are you using Twitter to market your public relations firm, company, or nonprofit organization?  Here are some guidelines for posting updates on your corporate Twitter account.  These recommendations would also apply to updates you post on your company’s Facebook Page and your LinkedIn Profile.

Keep Focused on a Key Message

Your business probably has a key message (or a set of key messages) that guide the kind of content you post on social networking sites.  For example, the key message for my firm is “creative and affordable marketing solutions for small businesses and nonprofit organizations.”  So, I would not Tweet about television advertising, for example, because that does not fall under the category of affordable marketing solutions for a small business. Think about what kind of information would be most useful and relevant to your followers.

What Kinds of Updates Work Best for a Business on Twitter?

Here are some suggestions for the types of updates to post on Twitter and Facebook Pages for your business.

• Communicate with journalists.  Post links to press releases, articles, and blog entries when they tweet about something related to your industry or issue.
• Respond to consumer questions, concerns, and praise.
• Announce new products, sales, or special offers.
• Request feedback from your followers on new products or approaches.
• Announce new hires, upcoming events, and good news.
• Post links to interesting articles related to your subject matter expertise.
• Never rant or post negative comments.

It may be tempting to lapse into conversational, off-topic updates about movies and the weather and such, but to maintain the integrity of your brand online, and deliver on the promise of your brand to your followers, it’s best to keep the updates relevant and useful.  I notice that when I break my own rules and stray from useful, business-related topics, I lose followers.

That doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions or ask for feedback.  However, that type of extended engagement tends to work better on Facebook Page updates, rather than Twitter, because streams of conversation are so much easier to follow on Facebook than Twitter.

When and How Often to Post Updates on Twitter

You can maintain a brand presence by updating your Twitter account and Facebook Page once or twice or day, during business hours, Monday-Friday.  Many premium accounts post updates with that frequency.  The key is to post updates on the days and during the times when you believe your target audience may be online.

You can tweet more frequently than that, but ideally you should space multiple Twitter updates at least an hour apart.  You can schedule your tweets with a free, third-party Twitter management application, such as Hoot Suite.   But I feel you should have a pretty compelling reason to update your account that frequently.  I don’t recommend live-tweeting events or interviews on your business Twitter account, or really, at all.  It will not help your brand.  A better approach for reporting would be to write a summary of an event or professional development event you attend, and post that short article on your blog (which you can link to in a tweet).

Using Twitter as a Customer Service Channel

The truth is, Twitter is not the most highly optimized platform.  Facebook Page updates may be slightly more so, but only slightly more.  Your well-crafted update and link can also get lost in the immense amount of information posted every second on Twitter, and remember, no one is going to see it, unless they are following you.  And even then, your message can get lost in the stream.  (Search engines do crawl some of it, but very little of it will actually show up in Google, in a way that is meaningful to your business.)

Therefore, the best Twitter update strategy for your business or nonprofit may be to post daily useful updates, but to concentrate your involvement on thoughtful and prompt responses to what others are saying about your brand and products (or industry).  For example, if your brand, company, or issue is mentioned on Twitter, plan for acknowledging and responding with thank you messages, clarifications, and offers of support or help.  To track brand mentions, you can use the Twitter search function.

Anchor Your Twitter Responses with Context

It’s helpful for your followers if you anchor your responses and @ replies on Twitter with meaningful links, retweets, and text. This will make your Tweets meaningful to your followers who may not be privy to the original post that prompted your response.  So, for example, you would not just reply “Thank you, @FletcherPrince!”  You would include some or all of the original tweet, and possibly a link, so your other followers would understand the background behind your message, e.g., “Thank you, @FletcherPrince, for that useful Facebook Page tip http://www.bitly.facebook-tip.”

Keep your Facebook and Twitter updates separate

It’s possible to link your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so that your Facebook Profile or Page is updated each time you tweet.  However, I recommend that you keep your Twitter and Facebook updates separate, that is, that you do not feed your Twitter stream to your Facebook account, so that the updates are identical.  While Twitter and Facebook are both social networks, they really are two very different platforms, with different capabilities, audiences, and tone.  Twitter updates often seem out-of-place on Facebook.

Your comments are welcome!

How are you using Twitter for your public relations firm or personal brand?

What Communicators Can Learn from the 2010 Census

I received my 2010 U.S. Census form yesterday, right on schedule.  I knew it was “on schedule” due to a well-planned, well-coordinated communication campaign which launched in early February.

First it was a series of rather weird TV and radio spots, then an advance notice mailed to all U.S. households to let them know when to expect the form.  Last week, news outlets all over the country ran stories about the Census:  when it would arrive, how long it would be, how to fill it out, and how to spot a Census scam.

In addition, over the past few days, a number of local news stations have aired interviews with county and municipal officers.  These segments provided local officials with an opportunity to tell their constituents why it was important to participate in the census.

But here’s where it got interesting:  instead of falling back on appeals to our civic duty (after all, we’ve seen how well that has worked with elections and jury duty), their talking points centered on how the collected data is used to determine Congressional representation and voting districts, as well as how Federal funds are allocated to local governments. 

As parents deal with cutbacks in school funding in the aftermath of the economic meltdown, as the national debate over health care and other legislation becomes more and more polarized, the decision to drive participation by focusing on these hot button issues is nothing short of brilliant.

Employee communicators generate lots of surveys and polls.  And with rare exceptions, we are frustrated by low response rates, falling back on gimmicks such as contests and rewards to drive participation.

The danger with stuffing the survey box, so to speak, is that responses rarely reflect the views of the overall employee population, so we end up working from misleading data.  And a program based on faulty data is doomed to fail.

We should take a page from the U.S. Census’s book and stress to our employees how the data will be used to implement changes (or even, improvements!) in the way the business operates.  Perhaps if we can identify the appropriate hot button, we’ll see much higher participation and gather more meaningful data in our assessments.

Susan C. Rink is principal of Rink Strategic Communications, which helps clients take their employee communications to the next level.  Email her at rinkcomms@verizon.net.

Lack of Brains Hinders Research

Yes, this was an actual headline for a question on the APR (Accreditation in Public Relations) exam to define one of Lippmann’s barriers to communication.  (The answer is: Distortion due to compression).

When I started my blog last fall, I had intended to write more about the process of studying for the APR exam. Instead, I found my passion in writing about social media, crisis communications and current events.

Now that I have earned my APR, I am both relieved and excited to join this elite group of public relations professionals. Here are my lessons learned for the successful completion of the APR readiness review and computer examination process.

1. Be ready to make the commitment to read a lot (study guide, text books, articles, case studies) and to exercise the APR knowledge, skills and abilities in hypothetical scenarios.
2. Form a study group. You can meet in person or chat online (e.g. Google Chat). Invite APRs to your study sessions. Talk through every scenario in the study guide and your own case studies. Deconstruct case studies and rebuild them.
3. Embrace communications theory. It had been years since I thought seriously about diffusion theory and the Grunig models of activating publics. These and other theoretical concepts have helped make sense of the confusion surrounding social media, for example.
4. Become familiar with research and measurement, as related to objectives. Unfortunately, many PR campaigns often do not have sufficient budget for pre and post research or measurement.  Yet, these topics are a significant portion of the exam. Study up, and you’ll find new ways of thinking about how to incorporate research and measurement into your job with no or little budget.
5. Improve your knowledge of business practices and ethics.  Experience is the best teacher in these areas. If you haven’t worked for a publicly traded company or faced the challenge of decision making, seek out colleagues who have.
6. Don’t be daunted by the process. Sitting in front of a computer for 3 hours and 45 minutes was not as painful as I envisioned. There is plenty of time to read the questions, reflect on your answers and review if necessary.

By Tracy Schario Johnson, APR

Public Relations University Profile: Howard University John H. Johnson School of Communications

Did you know that Howard University was the first historically black college or university to offer a public relations course?   That happened in 1971, and  by 1986, the Department of Journalism began offering public relations as a major sequence for its students.

As this video demonstrates, The John H. Johnson School of Communications at Howard University is a prime example of communicators doing more with less, but should they have to?  The university is embarking on a campaign to build a new, state-of-the-art facility and is seeking support.

Insight on healthcare PR (video)

Sara Latham, Senior Vice President of Healthcare at the Washington, DC office of Ruder Finn (http://www.ruderfinn.com) talks about her background in public relations and explains why healthcare public relations has become such a hot field in PR today.Your host for this episode of Conversations in Public Relations is Mary Fletcher Jones. Direction by David Hyson.

View all episodes on YouTube and http://www.prconversations.wordpress.com