Social media is only part of a good PR program

One of the biggest fears today among public relations professionals – rookies and experienced professionals alike – is the fear of not doing enough social media for their organization.

 

After all, any self-respecting PR practitioner knows that social media has emerged as a valuable part of an organization’s strategic communications plan. This much is certain.

 

But have new online tools fully supplanted old school tactics such as building off-line relationships with news sources or eclipsed tried-and-true strategies such as print and broadcast advertising?

 

The answer, for most of us, is “No.”

 

The importance of social media is evident and growing – and it is certainly emerging as the dominant energy behind many good outreach programs – but for many companies, traditional strategies and tactics remain keystones to a successful communications program.

 

Our cousins in the field of marketing have shed a guiding light.

 

According to www.marketer.com, a Deloitte study conducted at the end of 2008 concludes that television still has the most influence on purchasing decisions – even among Internt users. The study was conducted among Internet users in the United States, Brazil, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Consumers in all five markets named TV as having the most impact on their buying decisions, with 88 percent of U.S. respondents citing television as one of their top three media influencers. Magazines had the second most influence, with the Internet (search engines and banner ads) coming in third, followed by newspapers, radio, billboards – and then “social networking” sites – with only eight percent of respondents citing social networking in their top three.

 

Granted, this study examines social media from a marketing, not a PR, standpoint. I have not seen a comparable public relations study – but one’s probably out there, if you’ll send me the link – and I’m the first to argue that social media has more power to engage conversations, establish and maintain relationships and shape opinions than it does to advance the cause of marketing. Still, I always wince a little when I hear some of my colleagues essentially advise companies to abandon all traditional strategies & tactics so that the bulk of resources can be thrown into social media. I appreciate their enthusiasm for embracing The New, but for many organizations a better approach is an integrated plan with social media part of a larger communications program, not a complete substitute for it. The right mix depends on the organization and its audiences.

 

Again, I’m the first to say that social media is important. It can make a difference; in some cases it is the most effective strategy. And soon enough social media will be the end-all-be-all. But today, don’t eschew all of the old for all of the new… not just yet, anyway.

Good values are a key to happiness

I like to believe that I possess good personal values: I’m an honest soul who lives by the Golden Rule.

 

I was fortunate to be raised by parents who believed that a strong value system is the foundation for personal and professional success, and ultimately, for a happy life. My parents were right, and my wish is that every child has someone in his or her life to teach them the same.

 

In addition to my parents, my values were shaped in part by a junior high school teacher everyone called Coach West (he coached the school’s football team). I took several classes with Coach West, including an elective in 7th grade simply called “Values.” More than 30 years later, I still remember that class.

 

Coach West was about 55-years-old but looked closer to 65, the result in part of a hardscrabbled childhood in a small Midwestern town. He was a tall and serious-minded character who looked and walked and even talked a bit like John Wayne, one of his heroes. Coach West had never been to college but he’d fought in World War II, even though he’d lost an eye as a young boy in a traffic accident. He wasn’t anybody’s fool.

 

Coach West created the “Values” class because he was shocked at what he considered to be a lack of values among contemporary teens (something that has persisted for countless generations).

 

Coach West didn’t use a lot of fancy talk in teaching values, no discussion of teleological ethics or Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. In fact, the class had no syllabus, outline or book – and he wouldn’t have used PowerPoint presentations or SmartBoards even had they been available in the late 1970s. Coach West simply introduced us to one value each week – Honesty; Responsibility; Loyalty; etc. – by writing the value on a chalkboard, then explaining its importance through anecdotes taken from his own life. We never took a test in “Values;” we wrote essays examining the importance of each value in our own lives. The class was a simple concept, and it worked because I respected the messenger.

 

I now try to instill good values in my young daughter, and I’m proud to see she knows right from wrong and is an honest little girl, respectful of others. Like my parents, I believe strong values are the foundation for happiness. My hope is that my daughter instills the same sense of importance about values in her children, and I think she will…..

Business tip: Return messages promptly

Business owners might find this true story particularly insightful.

For months, a small business vendor had been calling and emailing me – almost to the point of annoyance — eager that I try her company. Eventually, a need arose, so I called her office, confident she’d be thrilled at the opportunity to showcase the extraordinary customer service she insisted could only come from a boutique like hers. I left her a voice mail and waited for a return call.

I then waited…. and waited….. and waited some more. After a week of silence, I sent an email, followed by another phone call. Then I went back to waiting. I received no response.

Sigh.

Only after asking a third party – a friend of hers – to call her directly on her cell phone did the vendor call me back. She’d been away for a few days, she said, and then had planned to contact me after catching up on things and beginning work on my order. She simply hadn’t gotten around to returning my 10-day old message.

I resisted the urge to gently advise her that even when people get busy, it is good business etiquette to return all telephone calls and answer emails within 24 hours. If you don’t have the answer or cannot begin the project immediately, at least respond to acknowledge receipt of the message and give a ballpark time frame when you’ll tackle the job. Your customers will appreciate the courtesy so they can plan accordingly – and be less likely to call a competitor out of necessity or frustration while they wonder if their request landed in a black hole.

Candidly, I have experienced this problem with a number of vendors (and colleagues, for that matter). I understand that people are sincerely busy, or they are waiting to get all the answers before calling back, but if it is going to be more than two days, go ahead and fire off a short email or phone call to advise that although you can’t deliver today, the project is in the queue.

Take it from a customer: we appreciate hearing back from you….. sooner than later.

To share or not to share lottery winnings

Here’s a moral dilemma for you.

Assume that every week, for years, you and several co-workers pitch in money to buy lottery tickets with an oral agreement to split any winnings – and then one week your ticket wins BIG, as in millions of dollars, but some of your lottery-buying colleagues were absent the day you pitched in for the actual winning ticket.

Would you split the winnings with the absent workers, those who normally contribute to purchase the tickets but who did not on that particular day?

Such is the real-life scenario faced by employees of the city of Piqua, Ohio. According to news stories, 14 city employees have claimed a $207 Mega Millions jackpot based on a ticket sold on December 12, 2008. After taxes, the winners each will receive a one-time payment of approximately $6.3 million (versus the option of a larger payout spread out over 20 years).

The 14 winners have declined to share the winnings with four city workers who usually play along but were out of the office the day the winning ticket was bought. Now the four workers are suing their 14 co-workers, claiming the winners didn’t keep their word about sharing any winnings with all regular players. The four residents want $41 million of the $207 million pot, claiming breach of contract and conversion. The four also want punitive damages and attorney fees. Including the four would reduce each of the 14 winners’ shares down to about $5 million.

I’m not an attorney, but I assume the four don’t have a strong legal case. There was no written contract. The four did not pay directly for the winning ticket or physically purchase it. Also, apparently not every worker contributed to every drawing every time over the years.

Regardless of the legal outcome, I think the right thing to do is to share the winnings with the four absent workers. After all, there was an oral agreement to split the winnings, and if the four workers indeed played regularly for five years — as has been claimed — it’s clear they were part of the team. It’s important to note, too, that the four say they joined with the others in a pool for a December 9 lottery drawing from which some cash winnings allegedly were then used to purchase the December 12 winning ticket.

Some friends of mine say I’m crazy. They say they wouldn’t split the money because the four did not contribute directly to purchase the winning ticket.

I just think I’d sleep better at night if I shared the winnings with my co-workers.

What would you do?

(This post also found on the Chicago Sun Times website.)