Kelly's Blog

For those of us in the marketing and PR world who are responsible for creating e-newsletters or other mass email distribution, the increasing use of PDAs instead of PC-based email is making that task a bit more challenging. Although most PDAs – Blackberry, Android, iPhone and iTouch – are capable of receiving HTML email, it’s simply not as clean-looking or quick to download as compared to opening up your email on your PC. Personally, my Blackberry is always up-to-date with the latest software, but I don’t know if it’s Verizon or Blackberry that is just a bit slow, but my HTML emails are a pain to open. I have to give my Blackberry permission to download images every time I open an HTML email. And by images, sometimes that means graphic-heavy text.

A recent column gives some basic tips for creating PDA-friendly email, but not many. I’m interested in what the experts have to say… comments?

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Happy New Year (as late as it may be)! I usually don’t make resolutions, because instead I give myself short-term and long-term goals regardless of the day those goals are set. However, I resolve to update this blog more often. My professional life is busy and challenging, and most of the things I do are probably boring to most, but once in a while I get to do something that would excite even the non-PR geeks out there.

Today I will spare you from my work updates. Instead, something I considerable quite humorous and laughable, especially on this 30-degree Sanibel Island Monday morning.

Bristol Palin

Sarah Palin’s daugher, Bristol (yes, the 19-year-old single mother), has opened up her own PR firm. Using her initials, BSMP LLC, employs one – herself. Her filing paperwork said that the firm “intends to provide lobbying, public relations, and political consulting services.” I’m all for working moms, even single mothers, but this is in no way a rational decision. You don’t open up your own PR company at 19. Design work, book editing, and skilled trades are one thing. But you wouldn’t ask a 19-year-old with no experience to perform heart surgery or represent you in a murder case. So why would you ask that same girl to counsel you on your company’s reputation? It’s one thing that she’s Bristol Palin. Her and her mother have ruined their family’s reputation. However, she is still a 19-year-old with no experience. She needs to get an internship at a big firm or an in-house job. And then try again in 10 years.

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For those of you wondering why I haven’t updated in what seems like forever – my apologies. I had a family emergency to attend to, which required 13 hours in a car, 6 hours in a plane and 8 more hours in an airport. But alas, I have returned and with juicy news.

The US military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported yesterday that potential embedded journalists are screened before they are allowed to deploy with troops to Afghanistan. The reason? “U.S. public affairs officials in Afghanistan acknowledged to Stars and Stripes that any reporter seeking to embed with U.S. forces is subject to a background profile…” which “examines individual reporters’ recent work and determines whether the coverage was “positive,” “negative” or “neutral” compared to mission objectives, according to Rendon officials.”

The Pentagon vehemently denies this with Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman saying, “There is no policy that stipulates in any way that embedding should be based in any way on a person’s work.”

I will be following the updates on this story, as it could greatly affect the information that Americans (and those all over the world) are receiving from embedded journalists in Afghanistan.

Source: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64348

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For a long time, the ads from the United States Army seemed as though they were aimed at individuals who didn’t have access to college or professional training. Joining the Army was viewed as a way to get funding for college and build your resume, but what about college graduates who already paid for their education or had advanced degrees? The Army is launching a new campaign today, aimed at those people exactly.

“The goals are to attract ambitious young Americans who might normally consider the Army beneath their career objectives and give the Army a jolt of much-needed creative leadership.”

The Army claims to have plenty of soldiers, yet lacks in officers – who fulfill important leadership roles.

“Four TV commercials will provide the public face of the campaign, all of which begin running Monday. The two that slowly reveal themselves to be Army ads tell the story of high-ranking corporate executives with experience as Army officers: Joseph DePinto, chief executive of 7-Eleven; and Otto Padron, a senior vice president at Univision.”

The commercial I saw is quite misleading for the first 18 seconds. I thought it was a commercial for 7-Eleven, but then I saw “West Point” under DePinto’s name. I’m hoping this means the Army is going to relax a little on its active recruitment of soldiers, because the idea that one should join the military to pay for college is a little outdated, and in this current state of affairs – downright selfish. On the other hand, I think it’s great that the Army is taking a new approach and focusing on educated individuals. It would be great to break the stigma of Army soldiers as alcoholic wife-beaters who can’t properly write a sentence – because I know a lot of both active and veteran military personnel – and that couldn’t be further from the truth. And most of them were already in college when they joined or deployed.

View one of the commercials and read the entire article here.

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“No, I mean it,” said Ms. Brigugulio, “I expect you to keep your word on this.”

The already-famed photograph on the front page of today’s New York Times was taken at a town hall meeting on healthcare hosted by President Obama in North Carolina. The Times just identified the woman who is picture wagging her finger at the President – Patty Briguglio, president and CEO of MMI Associates, a Raleigh-based PR firm.

“Ms. Briguglio pays for much of her 19 employees’ health insurance, though she doesn’t offer a group plan. Because her staff is so young, it is cheaper to simply provide an allowance for them to purchase individual policies.” Which is interesting, because that’s how it works at my company, with two owners and two benefits-receiving employees (I myself being one of them). Naturally, Ms. Briguglio is concerned with Obama’s proposed plan and how it will affect her taxes.

I am not offering my opinion on the proposed plan, nor am I advocating support for one small business owner or President Obama. I suggest you read the article as it may enlighten you on how these potential changes might affect your small business, and maybe offer some guidance on how to handle your own PR in situations like the one Obama’s administration has found itself in.

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The New York Times published an article today claiming that small businesses are realizing the potential of social media to manage their reputations. The ClickGuide is aimed at small businesses, so we highly recommend that our readers get involved in the social media world.

Quick tips:

• Set up automatic alerts to notify you when your business is mentioned in a review or blog.

• Local search sites are the new Yellow Pages — make sure your business is listed. The more complete your listing, the more likely you are to get good search results.

• Respond to reviews to show readers that you are listening and that you care about customer service.

• Online reviews are a gold mine of business intelligence. Analyze metrics to get a better sense of your customer demographics.

• Don’t write false reviews to puff your business or trash a competitor. You can severely damage your reputation…and look really silly.

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My mom was laid off in February because her company was finally downsizing, despite her 10+ years with the company. She has struggled with finding a new job since then, as have most baby boomers who were victims of the economic slump. She decided to take a course in QuickBooks to get herself familar with the newest version and hopefully make herself more marketable and versatile, and passed with flying colors. Now the serious job hunt begins. Until she finds a job (because I know she will), I told her to check out this list of more than 30 websites to visit when you’re laid off. Someone my company follows on Twitter actually posted the link to it today, so even though it was written in February, it’s obviously still getting people motivated to find a new job. And even if you’re currently employed, there’s very little job stability left in the US, so it can’t hurt to be up on all the latest job searching techniques and tools. And you should always have an updated resume, good relationships with all of your professional (and personal) contacts and a savings account with enough to get you through three months of unemployment. And here’s to hoping you never need that!

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Chicago resident Amanda Bonnen, unhappy with the upkeep of her apartment building, wrote the following on her Twitter account in May: “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.”

The result, according to Chicago Now: A $50,000 lawsuit by Horizon Group Management alleging that Bonnen’s statement damaged the company’s business. The complaint says Bonnen’s Twitter account, which had about 20 followers, was “public” so “anybody in the world can view the account holders Tweets.” A copy of the complaint is here.

Source: USA Today

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Pfizer launched its Twitter page last week. It’s not your typical Twitter – there are job openings and case studies posted. I must admit, this is the first time I’ve seen a job posting on Twitter. I think it’s great. If someone is already “following” a company, it’s either because they are a fan of the products or because the information could be beneficial to he or she because of their related job field. And who better to hire than someone who already follows your news updates – and is qualified, of course.

Pfizer’s vice president of worldwide communications, Ray Kerins, told PRWeek that Pfizer isn’t using Twitter to promote their individual products.

“Kerins said that that company discussed using Twitter for about six months before creating the feed and that, at this point, the company is not using Twitter for proactive product communications. He also noted that the company is looking at other ways to use social media, including the possibility of a corporate blog.”

This is an interesting concept. I find it extremely responsible of Pfizer to not use Twitter as a way to blindly promote prescription drugs, but to instead keep its followers up-to-date on all of the latest announcements, awards, job openings and executive appearances.

Read the entire article here.

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Copying and pasting is a cardinal sin of journalists. PR professionals and marketers may use the function sparingly but be prepared to face the consequences when failing to give credit where credit is due. But now the AP (Associated Press) announced today that they will be adding “software to each article that shows what limits apply to the rights to use it, and that notifies The A.P. about how the article is used.”

The AP still wants its articles printed, re-printed, blogged about, linked to, etc. They just want to be paid each time this happens. Stay tuned to find out what this mean for blogs like mine!

Source: New York Times article by Richard Perez-Pena

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