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Last week I stumbled upon (not StumbleUpon) an interesting article that emphasizes something I've been saying for a few years now. In short, the article highlighted a recent study detailed in the October issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, which found that the number of friends and wall posts that a person had on their Facebook correlated with how narcissistic they were. Hmm...So you're saying that if a person has "glamour" pictures of him or herself as their profile picture, he or she has a good chance of being a narcissist? Absolutely mind blowing!
We hardly ever get to know the "real" person on the other side of that profile pic or page, the other end of the email, text or Tweet. Companies, such as Google, have turned us into a culture of "I want the information NOW; and only the info that I want - nothing else." Nicholas Carr outlines in his book, "The Big Switch," how a new computer revolution is reshaping business, society and culture. Not that I completely agree with everything he forecasts in his book, but he did bring up some interesting and valid points in last week's interview with one of my favorite people, Stephen Colbert, regarding the book. In the interview, Carr talked about how we jump around so much on the Internet, grabbing bits of info, and then jumping to the next thing, causing us to take that into our communications with others, etc. Shrinking attention spans and the loss of the ability to listen are just a couple of the Internet's byproducts. This is why we never really get to know other people, and instead of having deep meaningful relationships with one or two handfuls of people, we have shallow, distant relationships with many, even thousands, of people.
Don't get me wrong, technology, the Internet, even Google, are all wonderful and very vital to what we do here at BLAST, and in my everyday life. Well, without any of those, you wouldn't even be reading this post right now (thank goodness for Al Gore!)! Technology has brought us together, but at the same time, pushed us farther apart from one another. The point is that we shouldn't get too far removed from one another that we have all of our relationships tied up in technology and we forget how to interact with others. Take some time to actually call or even have a face-to-face conversation with people every once in a while. There really is no substitute for face-to-face conversations. When's the last time you took the time to pick up the phone and call somebody or meet them in-person, rather than text, email or Tweet them?
It has been quite a busy week over at the BLASTmedia office. In addition to all of our usual tasks, this past Wednesday we also helped put on our annual fundraiser for the Special Olympics of Marion County. This year our fundraiser was themed "Fly Me to the Moon Dog" and was hosted at Moon Dog Tavern, and ended up being a really fun event!
The night started with our two emcees, Dave Smiley of WZPL 99.5 Smiley Morning Show and Tre Hawkins, a local Special Olympic Athlete who introduced the event, and the bands--Tighten Up and Free But Not Cheap. After that the night consisted of dancing, food, drinks, fun and our silent auction, with products donated from around town.
A special thanks to everyone who showed up for the fundraiser and was involved in the planning process--it was a huge success. We made around $3,000 that will all go toward the Special Olympics of Marion County and its more than 900 participants, for purchase of things like equipment and uniforms.
We hope to see you there next year!
It's amazing what you can learn when you turn your mouth off and turn your "ears" on. We as PR practitioners by nature talk a lot......and by a lot, I mean A LOT! Walk into a room of PR practitioners and you'll be amazed at the chatter. We're trained early on to get the "message" out and get it out to as many folks as we can. We talk a lot!
What separates good PR practitioners from great PR PROS? .......the art of listening. It's a rare trait to find a great PR Pro who is also a great listener.
Our PR expertise is only as good as our understanding of our Clients' customers, our clients' challenges, our clients' competition, our clients' world!! Ask great questions, and then listen. What am I hearing? What can I do with this information? How does this information arm me with more "punch" to pitch?
The art of listening begins with a solid understanding of the art of asking great questions. Great questions can open many doors -doors that lead to hidden gems or golden nuggets of information.
shhhhhh.........listen.
Industry blog PRsquared has a great post today that addresses the life cycle of a PR campaign and how client expectations are not often on-par with agency execution. If you get a chance, hop on over and give it a read.
The launch phase of a campaign always has the most excitement and initial client feedback. But what to do after the initial "newness" wears off? The post does a good job of examining the responsibilities of the PR firm and the client to keep the PR train rolling after a launch, suggesting that the client NOT put the firm on the defensive, but instead schedule regular calls to talk about the industry, trends and new product developments. Many times, our clients do not realize that something has news value until they share it with us. We often uncover some great ideas and angles during client calls that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.
It just hits home why regular client communication is a must. How often do you talk to your strategic partners?
Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nike, Kodak, Starbucks, McDonald's...everyday we're surrounded by branding - on the TV, radio, billboards, magazines, clothing. But what makes a brand great? According to the BrandChannel.com, brands reflect five distinctive traits:
1. Consistency in delivering on their promise
2. Superior products and processes
3. Distinctive positioning and customer experience
4. Alignment of internal and external commitment to the brand
5. An ability to stay relevant
This week Ashley and I rocked out at the Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick concert at Verizon Wireless Music Center. The lawn was packed with die-hard fans wearing everything from the greatest 80s attire to mullets wigs. Lighters raised, song after song, people cheered on these great bands that have been around since the 70s. Why, some 30 years later, do these bands still sell out stadiums nationwide? Branding! Those five distinctive traits easily apply to the success of these great bands. As long as the groups continue to deliver on the promise of a great show and a distinctive customer experience, people will continue to rock out to these great brands...I mean bands.
What are some of your favorite brands and/or bands?
One of my favorite parts about my job is traveling to tradeshows. I'm quite the talker, and even though I always end up with a sore throat and husky voice afterwards, I love spending my days interacting with clients, press and consumers.
Recently, I got the chance to fly solo and head to the AARP Life@50+ Expo in Washington, DC to represent Zip Express Installation. They gave away three 42" Olevia flat-screen LCD TVs, one each day of the show, along with free installation from their certified technicians! It was my pleasure to let everyone there know about Zip's convenient next-day services and I got to meet, or at least be near, some really incredible folks!
For the giveaway, we partnered with Retirement Living TV, who were kind enough to let me share their space for a couple of days. They had some very well-known talent grace their stage while I was there, including: TV personality Willard Scott, actress Shirley MacLaine, former Beatles member Pete Best and country singer Judy Collins.
By far the coolest person at the entire show was Dr. Ruth Westheimer - psychosexual therapist and regular contributor to Retirement Living TV. In fact, the booth even passed out complimentary "STDs Do Not Retire" condoms in her honor. It might seem strange, but it actually is very relevant to the 50plus audience - Check out the article in U.S. News & World Report.
I also got the chance to do an interview for the network with none other than Fred Grandy, or "Gopher" as you may know him from the Love Boat. We discussed the many benefits to Zip Express Installation, including the new 15 percent Gold discount available at www.zipinstallation.com/Gold for customers ages 50 plus. What a great way to spread the news about my client!
Overall, tradeshows are a great way to be face-to-face and really connect with an audience. Whether you're speaking with media or consumers, nothing beats being there. I'm looking forward to many shows in the future, and am taking away many memories from my recent adventure.
Me and my new best friend, Dr. Ruth:
The Retirement Living TV stage:
The Retirement Living TV booth where we let everyone know about Zip Express!
Lindsey and I are still recovering from an action-packed trip to the CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) Expo last week in Denver. With the help of our colleague Ashley, we scheduled numerous press meetings for our client Zip Express Installation at the show, as well as several editor meet and greets. Face to face time is essential to what we do, so we leveraged the opportunity to meet with as much press as possible. We met with writers and reporters from more than 10 major publications and spent the rest of our time hitting the show floor to recruit CEDIA technicians for Zip's growing network of professional installers. Although CEDIA attendance was down about 16 percent this year, it certainly didn't slow us down - or hinder our success. Look for some great upcoming coverage on Zip in the very near future as a result of our show efforts!
Last night, several BLAST-ers were among the thousands of fans to take in the inaugural regular season Colts game at our city's newest addition to the downtown skyline - Lucas Oil Stadium. While the Colts lost to Da Bears, the team and fans weren't the only ones who were disappointed. The stadium's $121 million sponsor also took a hit; one that, as media relations professionals, we all understand. The massive stadium was nicknamed "The Luke" by local media, and much to Forrest Lucas' dismay, it has caught on with national press as well. The nickname doesn't seem so bad on the surface, especially to someone like me, who isn't too familiar with the lubrication industry. Dig a little deeper, and you'll find that two competitors to Lucas Oil have very similar names - LukOil and Luke Oil Co. Ouch!
Members of the press are humans too, and sometimes mistakes like this happen. We're always making sure we provide editors with all the appropriate information they need about our clients and their products. But occasionally, something will squeak through the editing process - $34.99 becomes $43.99, .net turns to .com, etc. We do everything we can to make sure that the media get the story straight, but sometimes we end up in the same boat as Mr. Lucas.
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