PRU 2010: Andy Robinson - The Importance of Personal Relationships

Andy Robinson of the CRG Leadership Institute LLC presented strategies and tactics on why it is important to tap into your personal relationships.His executive coaching focus is helping executives, business owners and leaders achieve and substation incredible career success. He also helps his clients to love what they do for a living.

The Other “PR” – Personal Relationships
What are they?
Why are they so important?
How do you develop and optimize them?

“Relationships are everything” - Brian Tracey, Personal Success Guru

“Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows” - Ben Stein, Actor, Lawyer, Writer

The “Wake-Up Call”: You have to be proactive about developing, strengthening, and deepening my personal relationships.

Personal Relationships by his definition:  friends, current colleagues, vendors, family, former colleagues, business partners, college alumni, clients and advisors. If you were to put circle around the ones that are true personal relationships, it will include friends and family, but the others will be on the edges/borders, some closer into the circle and some further out. The more you bring them into the circle the better, because you are improving your personal relationships.

The Relationship Pyramid
You are at the top
Inner Circle (one level closer to you than just personal relationships)
Personal Relationships
Non-personal Business Relationship Acquaintenances
Names and faces that you see out and about in the world around you
Everyone else

You want to move as many people up the pyramid as possible.

Andy's definition of personal relationships includes:

• Friendly cordial, respectful relationship
• Relatively frequent bilateral or unilateral communication
• Very likely to know certain details of each other’s personal life
• Share an interest or otherwise have something in common
• You do not mind asking them for a favor
• Would very likely give you a business reference or recommendation, if applicable
• You frequently “give” to them in some way
• You have no problem asking them for business and vice versa

Why are personal relationships so important?

• Advice, counsel and sounding board. You can seek this information out from these people
• They offer an amazing platform for learning, personal development, and professional development
• They can refer resources to us. Whether it is at work or home, plumber, IT, etc.
• They offer a constant stream of new business opportunities.
• They are very willing to spin positive PR for you in the marketplace. They will tell others great things about you
• They are a significant source of career opportunity referrals
• They are your advocates, cheerleaders, and VIP Influencers. They will stand up for you and tow the line for you
• They are a “friendly” ear to listen and be there for you. Sometimes you don’t want advice; you just need someone to listen to.
• They offer fellowship, comradery and personal fulfillment.
• They provide leverage to get things done – they willingly tap THEIR own network for you.

How do you develop personal relationships and optimize them?

Desired Outcomes:
Expand and Broaden
Deepen and Strengthen

5 master strategies to expand and deepen personal realtionships:

1. Give first, and give often in sync with your key branding elements. It is not always giving a present. You can share relevant and useful information. Making yourself available just to listen and offering advice when they ask for it. Celebrate milestones with them, send birthday or holiday cards, or sending a newsletter or note on a regular basis. Be a positive influence, lift others spirits.
2. Connect, refer and recommend others. Be that person in your network that connects other people together.
3. Communicate frequently and ongoing. If people don’t hear from you on a frequent basis, then how will you stay on their radar. They have to know you are out there somehow. Create a newsletter, or utilize status updates on social media. Send a just “checking in” email. Share your own good news with people, it brings them closer to you. Call occasionally to say hello.
4. Embrace social media and immerse yourself in the medium. You have to immerse yourself in it because it is becoming a mainstream of communication. Get active in it, LinkedIn is a good example of one that needs to be used if you are a business person. Facebook is a bit more open, and be active on Twitter. Expand your network, it doesn’t work if you only have 3 connections. Avoid “brand” confusion. If you are using it for business, make sure to always use the same type of message. Develop a strategy on what and how you will do it.
5. You have to have quality and meaningful personal interactions. It is not just about sitting behind a computer. You have to have personal interaction with them.

The next step is to take action!

Commit to a 30-day plan:

• Write down 3 goals that you will commit to in the next 30 days.
• Write down 2 actions that you will do in the next week that is focused on one of those three goals.
• Write down 1 thing that you will do before the end of the day today that will expand or strengthen your personal relationship.

Habits are what it is all about. Embrace excellent personal relationship habits. Try to ingrain a habit. Personal relationships create magic, but you have to have a habit behind it. They are simple but powerful.

Guest blogger:  Jessica Clark, APR, Shell Point Retirement Community, JessicaClark@shellpoint.org

PRU 2010: Josh Hallett - Social Media in the Trenches

Josh Hallett is currently director, Voce Connect at Voce Communications providing social media consulting and development work with brands such as Disney Parks, Playstation, Ebay, Best Buy, CBS, Yahoo, Intel, Logitech, NFL and Comcast, among others.

His presentation entitled “Social Media in the Trenches” focused on the strategy of social media campaigns and the measurement techniques that get the noticed as an effective advertising method.

No matter what size company you are, there is an audience you want to reach and that audience is online. All social media (even at companies like Play Station) started with one person, working part-time to develop initiatives. By having goals and initiatives in place, they were able to grow social media into what it is today.

There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes. Media sharing, social networking, listening infrastructure, internal management, content planning and development, and community management are all things that make up the background of social media. Start with the basic things, such as listening and responding, and then build out. Customers want to get responses to questions they ask of your brand.

Earn to Play. Paid to Play. You are making the play.

There are three forms of media. Earned Media, Paid Media and Owned Media. Earned media consists of PR, investor relations, and customer programs. Paid Media includes campaigns, sponsorships, print ads and online ads. Owned Media, is original content that is shared with publishing tools. Hallett explained the three types as earn to play, paid to play and you are making the play.

Think of social media as a distributed system, where your corporate blog is the hub and where you spread your content from the blog are the spokes. Its often times hard to go back and find a link you once saw on Facebook days later, but if you replicate the link on your Twitter page and on your blog, others will be able to reference it easier at a later time. It is also important to distribute your content so that the content will gain higher search rankings.

Use the four P’s to successful at this. The four P’s include:
Preparation
Publishing
Participation
Performance

Use Radian 6 to find out what people are saying about your brand. Find out what is actual, what is trending, what is not trending and why they are talking, or not talking about this. At Voce a team of 6 individuals are doing this data research and analysis every morning and then they continue to monitor the results throughout the day.

Issue Flagging

Flag all issues that warrant a response. Determine whether you need to respond or whether you just need to look. If you will respond, track the timeliness in which you do so. Issue flagging and responding works much like a help desk system would.

Ed-Cal is Hallett’s Bible as it determines all the content that is going on everyday and is color-coded and time-scheduled to show the next week to three weeks of planned social media. Hallett also refers to a Twitter/Facebook Ed-Cal, which tracks links, which fan pages content will be posted to and where content would be going.

It’s all about timing. If you send a Tweet at 9 AM, be sure to retweet it every few hours.

The daily ebb and flow of communications is kept out of emails at Voce Communications, because email goes silent so quickly. This also enables work to continue at a steady pace, even if a co-worker is out of the office.

Use WordPress for all publishing. Voce recently redid the CBS sites all on a WordPress platform. Use Bit.ly as a tracking tool. For photo sharing, use Flickr. For videos, use YouTube, but you can also use Viddler, which provides more detailed analytics. Spredfast will allow you to schedule tweets and updates, but as Hallett stated, “automation is the devil” and should be used as sparingly as possible.

Even with the multitude of tracking programs out there, Hallett said that he still uses the good old-fashioned spreadsheet. He hosts the spreadsheet in Google Docs and makes sure to monitor and maintain tracking daily. This takes a lot of staff time, but measurement is important to tell where the company should be putting more money.

SEO

Seed the channel! If you are launching a new product, prepare three talking points prepared for the release. Three to four months before the release, start writing blog posts with those message points blended in there. Do a Google search on something you mentioned and look for the ranking. Once the content of your three messages points rank high on SEO, you have hit a home run. This is a way to tease out your new product announcement in a slow and steady, drip format.

Search for your product or service and take a screen shot. Launch your campaign and then do the search again to see where you are. People can cut PPC (Pay Per Click) by having a good social media platform. You can also save on email lists, since you can reach those people on Facebook. Social media will also help you to save on paying for focus groups or product insights.

Don’t forget HRO, or Human Reader Optimized content. Make sure it makes sense.

CNN makes sure to post something new all the time so that people will come back. Post your content as often as you want people to come back. Usually, 50-60% of the traffic to your website is coming from content released two weeks earlier.

Monitor what people are saying about your brand, because you need to respond to them. Mine for long-term effects on brand awareness and perceptions. How are you saving money? How are you making money?

Measuring social media is no different from anything else you measure.

A link is the most valuable commodity online. It is saying: please leave where you are right now and visit somewhere else. This is how Google bases their algorithm – on where people are going.

What’s coming?

Metricly is coming out and it will allow you to put all the analytics, Google accounts and social media accounts in one software that will build charts and graphs on your data.

Many companies are also starting to use Twitter as customer support to answer questions to reduce the costs of on site of off site customer support centers.

Getting Started

Set measurable goals on the tools
Align measurement tools
Start tracking sheets
Benchmarking
Reporting frequently

Going offline

Build an online community and get them together offline as quickly as you can. Get them in the same physical location. Meetups are a very powerful thing. It will get you huge increases in engagement.

Survey to find out where your customers are in the realm of social media. Is your audience there? If not, why are you spending your time there?

Comments and shares on Facebook have four times greater rank on Edgerank, which is organized based on commonality of friends. For a small business, test certain messages and find out what you are driving interest in. Once you have the audience, ask them what they want to receive from you.

Post status updates with a question. Get others to respond to it and friends will able to see the responses. Know when your audience is on Facebook. If you post at 9 AM, your audience may not be on until 10 PM. Use teasers such as: Make sure to check out our page tomorrow at noon. Do you see an increase around the hours that you are asking them to come back?

Guest blogger: Diana Sabino, Southwest Florida College

PRU 2010: Greta Schulz - Stop Selling and Start Building

With her friendly, professional approach enhanced by a bit of humor, Greta Schulz, President and CEO of Schulz Training shared her expertise by giving us practical advice on how to grow our businesses through building relationships. From her standpoint, growing your business should be your top priority and it is now a very popular topic. In addition to your PR work, you need to get out and network. However, we want to do it differently, putting relationships first in everything we do.

Specific tips from Greta on how you can build business when faced with some of the top sales challenges:

1. Getting “I’ll think it over” too often. Many people think calling and calling is follow up, but it’s “stalking.” Proposal shouldn’t be done until we know what needs to be done and what the budget is. If you put too much info in a proposal, that’s free consulting. If you sell properly, it doesn’t feel like selling. Interactive and consultative.
2. No time management system – you have too many things on your list and never get anything done. There is no such thing as time management – only priority management. We get the things done that we like. Also deadlines – we’ll figure out how to get it done. Everything else falls by the way side unless we set priorities. Figure out the things that MUST be done. It is too easy when at desk to check on email. Push the button to make email go black. Same with phone – even cell phone. Your business is first. Figure out what needs to be done and do it.
3. Not asking enough questions. Asking questions is really important – people become much more interested in listening to you when you ask them about themselves. If you talk too much you become Charlie Brown’s teacher: “Waaa….waaa…waaaa.” If you can engage someone, and then fit it what your advantages are to him or her, it makes much more sense.
4. Not enough referrals from existing members. Two reasons: we don’t ask, and we don’t ask properly. If we get brave enough, you might ask but it usually goes right over their heads. We have to paint a picture so when they hear it or see it, you will be top of mind. We have to get business through referrals.

Next, Greta introduced her STRAIGHT A’s for Success:

• Attitude: We have to believe that what we have makes sense. Have to stop believing that the economy is preventing business. Believe in yourself and your organization.
• Activities: To build our business or our clients’ businesses, we have to be networking, talking to reporters, and doing things that we need to do to grow our business. Growing our business is our top priority – even over our clients.
• Approach: What are we doing, what are we asking, what are we telling. How are we engaging people to achieve success?

Greta’s tips on NETWORKING: 
Most people don’t do it very well because we’ve never been taught. Walking into a sea of faces at an event can be awkward. You look around for someone you know or head for the three B’s: bar, bathroom or buffet. However, you don’t get business that way – there are better ways to network.

Follow the Plan: 
Identify your strategic alliances – someone you meet with in your community or industry – find out what they do and whom they are trying to meet. Explain what you do and who your trying to meet. There are three types we want to meet:

• Complimentary product or service
• Someone who has the ear of your prospect. Who else is getting in front of them – who are those people?
• Mover or Shaker – figure out who those people are, but you also want to be those people. Who everyone knows, likes, trusts. If you help them, they will help you. Help people first.

Where are you doing your networking? Don’t do it everywhere. Figure out what makes the most sense to you and build relationships in those organizations. May be chambers, trade organizations, charities for example. Figure out what you want to be involved in, jump in 110%.

Your Goal:  

When you go to a networking function, set a goal. Meet strategic alliances. Never leave without meeting two strategic alliances – the reason you are there is to find them.

The Conversation
What do you do?

How long have you been doing it?
Do you like it?
If I was to find someone who was a good referral, who would that be?

Be helpful. Asking about their favorite subject – themselves. You are looking for the 20% of people who get it. Suggest meeting outside of event to share those things – help each other. Amazing how much those relationships can build.

Follow Up: We usually walk out of events with pile of business cards which we generally ignore and eventually throw out. Follow up with everyone!!!! All the people you met – within 48 hours. Handwritten notes. Website called Follow up-cards.com – can customize and keep track. Then when you go to the next event, those people are going to come over to you….it’s about building relationships. Can put business card in there. Keep it simple.

Make Swiss cheese out of your newspaper – put clips in card and send to people. It’s not about you, it’s about them.

Givers gain – look to help other people first.

When you meet with someone on Sales side, one of three positive outcomes you should always have:
PROCESS:
Always have one of 3 positive results:

• Have a “Yes”
• Get a “No” – so you don’t waste any more time.
• Get a Clear Next Step – has three things. Date of follow up, time of follow up and an agenda of what will happen when you do follow up.

ITALK (acronym for info below)
Incident: people aren’t spending as much money
Thought: have to give discount, make it cheaper
Actual feeling: if I don’t do that I am not going to make as much money, I’m afraid
Lead action: we do it
Known result: we close less business, and what we close is discounted. Your known result is what you think. What you believe is what happens.

To get over that, here is what you have to do:

Prospecting – number one thing that you do, Activities, build your business: cold calling, networking, past clients. This is NOT an option, need to do consistently.

Pre-Qualification – you have to pre qualify everyone before you meet with him or her. Make sure that person is someone you should be spending time with and make sure they know you are not desperate. Psychology of people is that they have to feel that they earned the right to work with you. If we see if it fits, it will make more sense. Plus prospect shares issues and is selling themselves to you. Ask good questions to uncover is they are a good fit. Get that person talking.

Interview – when you are with them on the phone or in person, you are asking more questions to see if they are a good fit. Tell about your situation, your organization, what are you trying to achieve. Perception, Competition, Ask thought-provoking questions. Asking as opposed to telling leads to a self-discovery process. They think it’s their idea. Talk about budget. Set clear next step.

Follow up Email – summarize everything you talked about and send in an email. Recap what they said. Add clear next step.

Recommendation: Last Step. Proposal. Only after you have done all the other four above. Do not propose too early. Discuss issues and money range.

Guest Blogger: Phyllis Ershowsky, MBA, APR, CPRC, PKE Marketing & PR Solutions  phyllis@pkecreative.com

PRU: October 8th - Featured Speakers

Are you registered for PR Unversity yet? If not, you won't want to miss it! It's right around the corner, on October 8th from 8 AM to 4 PM at the Holiday Inn Ft. Myers Airport - Town Center.

There is a fantastic line-up of featured speakers and topics which include:

• Josh Hallet of VOCE Communications: "Social Media in the Trenches"
• Butch Ward, Managing Director of Poynter Institute: "Writing and Editing in the New Media Age"
• Andy Robinson, Executive Coach: "The Importance of Personal Relationships"
• Homer Gaines, Sr. Flash Developer, Chico's FAS, Inc.
• Greta Schulz, Schulz Training & Consulting: "Stop Selling and Start Building"
• Suzanne Willis: "The Art of Making Meetings Pay Off"

Register today by clicking here!

Job Bank Posting: Medical Marketing Representative

A freestanding outpatient radiology imaging center with two locations in SW FL is looking for a marketing rep to call on physician offices in Ft. Myers and Cape Coral.

Candidate must be experienced, dependable, energetic, and self motivated.

This is a salaried position and includes a cell phone, mileage reimbursement, marketing budget/allowance, health/life insurance, vacation.

Contact : Mike Curry by emailing mcurry@aria-images.com or calling 239-333-2742.

Advanced Radiology Imaging Associates, LLC

President's Word: PR Surge

By Pam Nulman, APR,CPRC

It may be a little premature to strike up the band and celebrate the return of a robust hiring market for PR pros, but indications point to at least picking up the baton and warming up the horn section. 

The University of Southern California’s sixth Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) Study indicates 2010 will be a stronger year for hiring as respondents forecast increased communication budgets and a move to increase internal hiring. 

Advertising Age recently stated that the Public Relations sector is not just surviving, it’s thriving.  Citing a recent study conducted by the Council of PR Firms, which found the majority of agency CEOs and CFOs surveyed said they are expecting revenue growth in 2010 and that the new-business pipeline is stronger than ever, prospects for the industry are strong with spending on PR expected to hit $3.4 billion this year, an increase of 3% over 2009.    

The New York Times on September 8^th ran an article on the “Growing Appreciation for P.R. on Madison Avenue” focusing on the emerging trend of heretofore traditional advertising agencies acquiring public relations agencies. 

What does this mean for today’s PR pro?  Opportunities are coming down the pike and those who will be able to capitalize on a rejuvenated job market are those armed with the latest skills and knowledge to best serve their clients and organizations. 

Start Today! 

1.      Get involved and renew your FPRA membership.  Engage with other professionals, expand your knowledge and energize your career.  Attend FPRA monthly luncheon meetings and special events throughout the year.

2.      Jolt your career by attending PR University on October 8.  This action-packed day of professional development is designed to propel your career forward and prepare you for the inevitable changes and opportunities ahead. 

3.      Connect – not just through social media – but face-to-face with other PR professionals and business and community leaders.  Focus on building and sustaining relationships.  After all, isn’t that what we do best in public relations?

-Pam

“More business decisions occur over lunch and dinner than at any other time.”  - Peter Drucker

Registration now available for Public Relations University Oct. 8th

The Southwest Florida Chapter of the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) is hosting its annual one-day professional development seminar, PR University (PRU) on Friday, October 8. This year “PRU: Putting the Relations Back in PR” focuses on the importance of building relationships through successful communication.

The event boasts national and local speakers on topics such as the importance of personal relationships; social media monitoring, measurement and branding; the importance of building relationships with sponsors; and tips from area graphic designers. Representatives from VOCE Communications and the Poynter Institute are among the list of speakers.

Founded in 1975, the Poynter Institute is dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. A recognized leader in industry best-practices, Poynter promotes excellence and integrity in journalism and in the practical leadership of successful businesses.

One of the seminar’s keynote speakers, Josh Hallett, serves as Director, Voce Connect at Voce Communications, providing social media consulting and development work with brands such as Disney Parks, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Yahoo, eBay and a number of B2B/B2C firms.

For more than fifteen years, Hallett and Voce Communications have been working with emerging internet communication technologies and works closely with public relations practitioners and corporate communicators to integrate these tools into an organization's public and media relations strategies.

For a complete line-up of this year’s PRU speakers, visit http://www.fpraswfl.org/.

The seminar will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, October 8th in the new Holiday Inn Airport at Town Center off Alico Road in south Fort Myers.

Full-day registration is $90 for non-members, $75 for members, and student registration is $35. Register at http://www.fpraswfl.org/ by Friday, Oct.1.

Our thanks to PRU sponsors Briggs and Rogers Marketing and Public Relations; Gravina, Smith, Matte & Arnold Marketing and Public Relations; LCEC; Nulman PR & Marketing and the News-Press Media Group.

Non-profit scholarships offered for PRU

For the second year, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation is offering ten half-scholarships to attend PRU available for representatives of non-profit organizations. Non-profit organizations interested in applying should send a 50-word summary to Carolyn@briggsrogers.com. Only one member per organization can apply. Scholarships are on a first-come first-served basis.