Solid.

by Roger Pynn

Allow me a moment of personal privilege to note the life and career of a truly fine guy and an outstanding television journalist.  My friend and college classmate, Vince McGough, was known by the air name Scott Harris, passed away today.  More importantly he was known for qualities aspiring broadcast news people should emulate … the willingness to listen, curiosity and the determination to find answers without becoming abusive or disrespectful, and a twinkle in his eye that earned him countless friends in and out of the media.

Scottie had a laugh you could hear all across the territory he covered.  If you heard that laugh across a crowded room, you knew instantly who it was and it always made you smile.

He couldn’t laugh when I sat at his bedside Saturday.  But his many, many friends who came to be with him shared laughs and stories about Scott and his devotion to the news business and the young people in it … he always wanted to help grow young journalists as if tending a garden of roses.

Nothing said more to me about the man we will miss so much as the team of colleagues from the 24 hour news channel he helped to launch and build … the lobby at Hospice of The Comforter looked more like a branch of Central Florida News 13.  Throughout his final days, reporters, producers and meteorologists were there, welcoming visitors from among a long, long list of Central Floridians they had reached out to – old news friends, political leaders and college classmates – to be sure they would have one last moment with him.

Scott Harris would cover anything … but he loved politics and the NASA space program more than anything.  I can imagine him moderating debates in Heaven and how I envy the seat he’ll have for future launches.

Communication & Leadership

by Roger Pynn

This item from LeadingBlog about Diana Smith’s new book “The Elephant in the Room” reinforces the role public relations can play in building mutually productive relationships and achieving consensus … particularly in stressful times.  If, as Smith describes, two egos as large as Roosevelt and Churchill could learn to accept each other by looking beyond their personal opinions to understand the other’s perspective, it would seem there are very few who can’t.

 

In a world so complex and full of messaging, however, isn’t that what public relations people really ought to focus on … bridging misunderstanding as opposed to simple promotion?  Whether you are trying to build understanding of a brand, position a product for sale or overcome misperceptions of an individual’s positions, what we really do is create an environment in which negotiation can take place without tension.

 

In the end, what I think isn’t nearly as important as what the person I am negotiating with perceives.  If I can see the world through their lens I’m far more likely to understand the barriers to them adopting my position.

 

That’s the first step in leadership.

 

What’s the Right Message to Send?

by Kerry Martin

I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes we as communicators don’t always get the right message across the first time. And as the saying goes, you never get another chance to make a first impression.

So when we have the opportunity to bring in a new team member to Curley & Pynn, we certainly want to show her a warm welcome and demonstrate what our company is all about. But instead of a big group meeting where we can all talk to our new employee, sharing with her our company culture and giving her an orientation—on her first day, most of the team is hard at work on client projects of their own. After a short introduction to our ongoing projects, we give her assignments and push her in head first. Her plate is filled with writing press releases, compiling media lists and conducting research—and that’s all before 10 a.m.

If agency culture is fast-paced and client driven, what would have been the best way to transition a new employee to the firm? What messages were we sending by giving a new team member a crash course on how we operate before cutting them loose to learn by doing?

To me, showing a new employee steps one and two and having her jump into step three on her own seemed like a better introduction to what we do than sitting her in front of a training video and walking through the company handbook. Her ability to hit the ground running on client work that was completely new was just what we needed—and what’s more, it proved her mettle within the first couple hours.

While her first day may have been a flurry of activity, it was actually a pretty accurate depiction of the day-to-day events at Curley & Pynn, and if most communicators shoot for transparency in their messaging, we may have gotten it right after all.

So please welcome our newest communications specialist, Brittany Englert, to the Curley & Pynn team. We’re sure you’ll see her contribute to Taking Aim very soon (as she seems to be getting her feet wet with every other project here).

Facebook Places Checks Out

by Julie Primrose

Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it is removing Facebook Places from its mobile apps.  While many Facebook features have come and gone over the years (Can we all agree that poking should be the next thing to go?), it’s interesting to see the demise of Facebook Places since there’s always been a lot of discussion on the future of location-based social networking.

At the same time Facebook Places has seemingly failed, Foursquare has continued to grow, reaching 10 million users for the first time last month.  So what has made Foursquare succeed, while Facebook rethinks its approach to location sharing services?

On Foursquare it’s common for businesses to offer check-in deals, but I haven’t seen much of the same on Facebook Places.  When you decide to engage with customers using social media, you need to offer something for the customer once they’re there.

Telling your customers to check-in isn’t enough.  You must give them a reason to do so, whether that’s a special offer, exclusive content … whatever they would value enough to continue checking-in and engaging with your brand.

What’s the Best Customer Service Story You’ve ever Told?

by Kim Taylor

By now you’ve heard about The Best Customer Service Story Ever Told featuring Morton’s The Steakhouse, right?   It’s such a brilliantly serendipitous story, which as it turns out, is part of Morton’s overall strategy of providing random acts of kindness to their customers.

The story jogged my memory about a customer service win I’d been a part of years ago …

I’d taken a job with the Sports Authority as a customer service manager.  It was my first real management position and also the first time I’d opened a store … meaning the gig started while construction was underway and continued on through store opening.

In terms of training, this had its pros and cons.  While we were able to learn the ropes without customers, doing so was a tricky proposition since mock drills rarely resembled real-world situations.

One afternoon, our front-end team was gathered around the checkout area working through various scenarios when suddenly we saw an older gentleman peering through the window with a set of golf clubs in his hand.  I was tasked with telling him we didn’t open for another month.  After a long and arduous conversation about the 45-minute drive he’d made to return the clubs and the various appointments he was missing in order to be there within the 30-day return window, I took a chance and – even though we had no working registers – told him we’d figure out a way to return the clubs.

My boss agreed and after a few calls to a store an hour south, we worked it out.  The overjoyed customer left with a credit and we kept the clubs.  We created a customer for life, I solidified my position as CSR, and we incorporated the story into training sessions for months.

The Internet as we know it didn’t exist yet and social media wasn’t even thought of, but I’d like to think that story would’ve garnered a retweet or two if it had.

So what’s the best customer service story you’ve ever told?  Were you the recipient, like Mr. Shankman?  Or did you go above and beyond for a customer or client?

The CNN School of Journalism

by Dan Ward

More than a year ago, I wrote about the wonders of CNN’s iReport, the website run by the former “Worldwide Leader in News” that lets you report the news all by yourself, as I put it, “without all the worry over silly details like sourcing and verification.”

It seems CNN agrees that allowing millions of people to report news with absolutely zero journalistic training might not be the greatest of ideas, so it now has opened its own virtual school of journalism for iReporters.

The CNN iReport Boot Camp trains aspiring citizen journalists on important topics, such as “Pick your story,” “Find your sources” and “Headline writing, story building.”  One boot camp story provides sage advice on locating credible sources and fact-checking, telling iReporters, for example, to “pick up the phone to give officials a fair chance to comment.”

The lesson for iReporters?  Act more like CNN’s own trained journalists when developing and posting your stories.

Great idea, except for one minor detail.  Unlike CNN’s own trained journalists, you still have no requirement as an iReporter to FOLLOW these guidelines.  Consider them suggestions.  You still can post your story without any fact-checking, without verifying sources, without any semblance of objectivity, if that’s how you choose to report.  As CNN states, “The stories here are not edited, fact-checked or screened before they post.”

CNN says that one of the goals of CNN iReport is to “expand the current definition of news.”  If that definition no longer includes accuracy, fairness and objectivity, CNN, by all means consider this experiment a success.

What is a Newspaper?

by Roger Pynn

Rarely do public relations people gather that the question doesn’t arise.  “Can newspapers survive?”

A GIGaom report by Mathew Ingram turned my head today and made me wonder if the question really ought to be “What is a newspaper?”  Ingram is reporting on the opinions of Joy Mayer who some are calling the “queen of engagement” because she’s preaching that the future of media is a two-way street where journalists have to engage and interact with their readers/followers/friends.

I agree with Mayer on many things.   But her guide to for the newsroom of the future has some interesting tips, including the need for “value statements” like “we continually alter what we cover, and how, based on what the audience responds to.”

To which I say, that isn’t a newspaper, Ms. Mayer, it is a highly commercial approach to delivering the news people want to hear rather than what journalists determine they need to hear through careful and thoughtful reportage.

If you follow that “value” to a logical end, newspapers of the future could expect to be manipulated by activists who bombard them every time they publish something they don’t like.  Imagine how easy it would be to redirect your local newspaper by “liking” them into not covering your blemishes.

In Ms. Mayer’s world the answer to the question “can newspapers survive?” is very simply a great big “NO,” because they won’t be newspapers they’ll be fulfillment services responding to our every whim rather than doing what newspapers are supposed to do … inform and educate us by employing journalists who will ask the questions we would ask if we could be on the scene when news is breaking.

Marketing & Promotion: Which of These Ideas Work?

by Kim Taylor

This week, two new campaigns caught my eye.

The first:  a promotion from Domino’s Pizza reviving the ever-popular Noid character from the 80s in a game on their Facebook page.  Players of The Noid’s Super Pizza Shootout compete to win coupons for one of more than 10,000 free pizzas.

Why this works:

Even though the game launched during a week when all ‘the world seems to be bashing remakes of “Dirty Dancing” and “Footloose,” Domino’s proves that putting a new twist on an old campaign can work.  The Noid is fun, light-hearted and celebrating his fictional 25^th birthday.

The second: Gap’s new food truck, “Pico de Gap.” Presumably piggybacking on the food truck craze, which, while relatively new to Orlando, has been fairly active in California (the Gap’s home state) for some time now.

Pico de Gap is promoting the brand’s ‘1969: L.A. and Beyond’ campaign, literally taking their campaign to the streets. Tacos are $1.69 and come with a coupon for Gap’s denim.

What do you think? Did the Gap nail it on this one?

Even though I think it’s clever, I don’t get the connection. When I think of “mi amigos,” my first thought isn’t exactly pre-washed denim. Nor have I ever been walking through the Gap and had a sudden urge for a taco.

So, what do you think? What are some examples of promotions you’ve seen recently that work or don’t work?

Share What you Learn

by Kerry Martin

They say it’s important to share what you learn.

The “they” in this instance was an SVP of corporate communications that I just had the pleasure of learning from during a general session of the Florida Public Relations Association’s Annual Conference (which is an even bigger pleasure because I’m in attendance this year!).

The keynote speaker, Angela Buonocore of ITT Corporation, passed on more than a few pearls of wisdom during her presentation, and it struck me how applicable her advice was– not only for communications professionals, but for all business professionals.

While presenting the topic of “What CEOs Want and Need From PR,” Angela detailed some of the qualities that make any professional essential to their team… and to their CEO.  Qualities such as ‘strategic thinking’, ‘understanding corporate goals’ and ‘mastering complexity’ were not unlike our firm’s Five Steps, (which focus on the big picture and the things that keep the client awake at night).

But what stood out to me the most was her drive to keep raising the bar.  At some point, she warned, professionals can get in the comfort zone where “good” becomes “good enough.”  And for Angela, good but not great is not good.

Then what’s the recipe for success?   She gave a few tricks to make you push yourself.  Like a pool player, she says, you have to call your shots.  Putting it out there that you’re going to sink a big play is telling management that you’re working harder to reach your goals, not getting lucky on a surprise win.  Another tactic is to ask for feedback–but not just from your boss.  Get a review (an honest review) from peers, customers and external partners whenever you can to make sure you’re always improving, strengthening your skills and growing.

As the closer for Day 1 of the conference, that’s what I call good professional development.

I hope the knowledge she passed along can be something you learn from too.  For more notes and takeaways from the conference as it happens, you can follow the action at FPRA’s blog.

Worry

by Dan Ward

My two partners re-tweeted this today about double-dip recession worries. Let’s face it, after the debt ceiling mess, the stock market tumble and the worrisome signs on job creation, we’re all worried.

The question is: what are you doing about it?

No, I’m not asking whether you’re saving more or dining out less. Rather, what are you doing in your profession to deal with this anxiety? If you’re worried, doesn’t it make sense that your bosses and your clients are worried, too?

We have a saying here, “Focus on what keeps the client awake at night.” What are you doing to address the financial worries that are keeping your companies and your clients awake right now? What are you doing, now more than ever, to make yourself an essential part of their success, an essential part of their ability to survive and thrive in a struggling economy? What are you doing to identify new opportunities for them to grow their business? What are you doing to help them connect with and preserve beneficial relationships with their customers?

If you want to put your mind at ease, it’s their worries that you should be worried about.