Man I love this post, Social Media and Letting off Steam.

There are definitely people who put every complaint, every beef and every negative experience they have out there into cyberspace all for the world to see.  But the author of this post points out that if you do this too much, people only get that one side of you, leading them to assume you are a Debbie Downer 100% of the time…wah wah..

It’s so important to remember that the content you are putting out on your social media sites is really painting a picture, “a one-dimentional” picture of who you really are.  And like it or not, people will make snap judgements based upon this.

Liza and I are big fans of promoting positivity within the workplace. Sure we have bad days, but it can be pretty easy to start feeding off negativity if there is a lot of it going around.

So I’m glad I stumbled across this post…it reminds me that we are on the right track.  If you have decided to eliminate negativity from your posts, let us know.  We would love to hear from you!!

I was flipping through the latest issue of Forbes magazine, which just so happens to be its “The Celebrity 100” edition, where they rank celebrities based on a combination of income (solely from entertainment activities) and exposure.

At Full Circle PR, we are always challenging ourselves to provide a solid framework for measuring social media marketing activities for our clients.  For example, how does fostering dialog among online channels translate to audience engagement, thus creating loyal brand ambassadors?

I thought it would be interesting to share what data Forbes uses when rating the likes of Lady Gaga, Kobe Bryant and Taylor Swift:

The Celebrity 100:

• Earnings estimates for June 1, 2009 to June 1, 2010
• Social rank calculated using metrics, such as Facebook friends and fans, as well as Twitter followers
• Overall press mentions on Factiva
• The number of times a celebrity’s image appeared on the cover of 25 consumer magazines
• Web hits on Google Blog Search
• TV/radio mentions on LexisNexis

I think this information is a good reminder that in our own measurement activities, we can’t just rely on the number of eyeballs that see a particular message.  We also need to delve deeper and look at how a brand’s initiatives affects the company’s revenue stream, reaches new audience members and encourages behavioral change (like going to see a concert or purchasing a basketball jersey).  It’s certainly not going to be the same exact formula for every brand, but I think that as we continue this conversation, we will be able to share best practices among many experts in a variety of industries.

Have you found a great way to measure social media success?  We’d love to hear from you.

This is probably true in any industry, but the public relations category has its fair share of incredibly talented professionals, and then those who pose as professionals while not-so-quietly undermining everything that defines the business.

For brand managers who’ve worked with experienced PR firms before and know what success looks like, they know how to ask the right questions when interviewing a new agency to serve as their strategic advisor and partner.  They can vet out the PR pros from the snake oil salesmen and “spin doctors,” and find the right team to help drive their business forward.

Having had the good fortune to be part of these conversations with potential new clients (where some of the time the business has come our way and other times, we weren’t the right fit), I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the questions you should ask when hiring a PR firm.  If the group you’re interviewing doesn’t have adequate answers for you (or if you just have an uneasy feeling – run, don’t walk, in the other direction).  Your PR firm should be an extension of your team, working to help your story shine and connect you with your audience and fans — not a hindrance or drain on your resources.

What experience do you have in my industry? We’ve worked with businesses ranging from financial services to consumer goods to real estate and more.  While it’s not imperative a firm have prior experience in your industry, it certainly does help.  A good firm would be able to quickly get up to speed in a new industry.  But if you can find a firm that already has relationships in your business, it certainly helps get things started much more quickly.

Can I speak with your references? As with any new hire, you should check the references of a potential PR partner before you engage with them.  And don’t limit yourself to one or two client references.  A good PR firm should be able to provide you with journalists, bloggers, event coordinators and vendors to speak on their behalf about what it’s like to work with them.  Ask hard questions about how quickly the PR firm returned calls, stayed on budget, what were they like to work with?  The best skill sets in the world aren’t nearly as effective if you’re dealing with a difficult personality.

How do you measure results? PR measurement is still a hotly debated issue.  Be wary of any firm still using the “ad equivalent” model.  Rather, look for firms committed to establishing measurement goals at the outset of an engagement, and then ask them to show you examples of their work.  There’s no one singular way to measure PR efforts, but there ARE effective ways to show ROI in this area.  Just ask Katie Paine, the residing expert in this field.

How will you manage my account? Some firms will use a new business development team to sell you on their capabilities, and then once you’ve signed on with them, pass you along to the account team to manage your day-to-day activities.  It’s okay to ask to meet the folks who you’ll be working with on your account up front – in fact, you should make that a priority question to your short list of firm candidates.  This is your business – you want to make sure the people working on it to boost awareness are capable professionals.

What are your firm’s strengths? Public relations encompasses a wide range of capabilities: media relations, event planning, social media strategy and crisis communications to name a few.  Not all firms excel in all areas.  If you know you’re going to need more event planning than crisis work – best to look for a firm with experts in that area (again, see reference checking points above).  If you work in a highly litigious industry, then crisis communications folks would be the ones you want on speed dial.

These are just some questions that will help you make sure you’re getting the most bang for your PR buck.  Remember, effective public relations efforts are ones in which the brand and the PR firm work in close partnership to measure against stated business objectives – and that doesn’t happen overnight.  But done correctly, can make for some stellar ROI.

What other questions would you add in interviewing potential PR firms for your business?

According to QuitFacebookDay.com, more than 11,000 people have signed up to delete their Facebook account on May 31, as part of a growing rebellious response to privacy and security concerns.

I read an article on CNN.com via CNET.com) today recapping the movement happening against the online behmoth, from a Facebook protest group, to a Huffington Post online video walking you through the steps of how to delete your account.

Yet with all of this attention, social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn continue to grow.  I’ve personally had a Facebook account for two years now, and I can genuinely say I’ve enjoyed participating on the site.  I love seeing where old friends ended up, pictures of their children, exciting places they’re traveling.  It’s been a great way for me to keep in touch with people I can say with almost 100 percent certainty I wouldn’t have kept up with otherwise.

Am I concerned about some of the potential privacy breaches?  Sure.  But I try to take precautions to limit strangers’ access to my information and only allow certain people to see certain aspects of my profile.  (I more worry about my mom, who’s not as comfortable on the computer and just recently started a Facebook account.  I secretly go in behind her and make sure she’s set her account settings appropriately so she’s not divulging anything she shouldn’t).

As social networking continues to evolve and grow (and it will, it’s here to stay), it will be a constant challenge to keep people’s private information private, and stay one step ahead of the evil hackers (that Nigerian minister finally stopped e-mailing me – I guess he got the hint).

I think I could “quit” Facebook if I wanted to, but I don’t.  I trust the company is working towards a solution to keep their account holders information as private as they indicate. Maybe that makes me naive, but I’m more worried about people stealing the credit card offers that arrive in my mailbox than hacking into my Facebook information.   (The credit card thing actually happened to me a few years back).

Are you on Facebook and are you thinking of pulling the plug on Monday, May 31? Do you agree with how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been handling the situation? I’d love to hear what people are thinking about this issue, which is definitely a larger conversation about online safety and privacy in general.

Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

I thought about this comment a lot this weekend, especially after I read the Charlotte Observer’s Sunday paper and its “Charlotte’s social media policy: Not so social?…No Comment” article.

The City of Charlotte wants to incorporate Facebook and Twitter pages to communicate its news and messages to its audiences.  Sounds good…so far.  But they want the ability to control comments on these pages – and to be able to remove negative comments when posted.  The problem is, when you start pushing your messages out to people but don’t give them the opportunity to express their opinion, ask questions or generally comment on items, then your page becomes static – and it serves as nothing more than a Web site.

People who are interested in starting Facebook or Twitter pages for their companies/brands sometimes ask, “What if they say something bad about my brand?”  My response is:

• People are already saying what they want about your brand offline.  With social media, you can actually participate in the conversation, ask questions, clarify items and even learn from negative comments.
• If your company’s page receives a complaint about a product or service, you can use this constructive criticism as a way to connect on a more personal level with the person who had an experience bad enough to complain about it.
• If the comments are obscene, false or irrelevant to the content you are posting, feel free to delete it.  But don’t view every negative post and dismiss it – you will be ignoring many opportunities to engage with loyal ambassadors and continually improve your brand.

Bob Hagemann, one of the city’s staff attorneys, said “”The city has decided that the risks of potentially establishing a designated public forum through social media (and the consequences that follow) are not worth whatever benefit might be obtained.”

And that’s O.K.  Liza and I always say that social media isn’t for everyone and every organization.  If you aren’t going to use social media tools to create an ongoing dialogue with your audiences ( and essentially remove their right to make comments in the first place) then you don’t have to use them at all.

Wow, time flies fast. We all know it.  Just when you are done celebrating the holidays and ringing the New Year, it’s spring already.

I think the capabilities that blogs give us are enormous – not only can we talk about what is going on in our world here at Full Circle, we have the opportunity to connect with people who share a passion for – or benefit from – all that falls under that glorious marketing umbrella.

But when days blur together and back-to-back meetings are common, I have let my commitment to blogging fall by the way side.

We like to advise our clients that the key to social media activities is consistency and engagement.  I’d like to think that I do this relatively well through Twitter and Facebook, but I want to dedicate more to blogging.

Everyone’s busy these days – but how do you keep up with updating your blog on a regular basis?  I would love to hear any best practices out there.

In the mean time, I’ll step it up.  Look forward to hearing from you.

Social media. The topic is completely unavoidable in today’s world. Whether its personal or business related, it seems like everyone is trying to find their place in online communities.

At SCPRSA’s February luncheon, I had the chance to get another take on the phenomenon. Unlike my last post, Being Relevant, this recap is focused on the benefits of social media for business. And unlike using social media as a megaphone to shout your ideas to the world, from a business standpoint social media is best used as a medium for back-and-forth conversation.

At the meeting, guest speaker Jon Evans (@bigjonevans onTwitter) laid out a basic, fundamental understanding of social media, as well as steps for implementation.

First, Jon set up the analogy that social media is a lot like New York City – to start, it’s an unavoidable topic that everyone has at least heard of. There are those who really want to go, those who want to if the opportunity is right, those who just don’t want to and those who just have no business going. Sounds appropriate.

Next, Jon proposed a solid definition. Social media is the concept – not entity – of creating relevant conversation and building a community.

So when considering taking a business or a brand into the realm of social media, there are a series of steps that need to be taken.

1. Decide if social media is a good fit. It may not be.

2. If social media is a reasonable concept, set a plan for action. Establish a mission statement, reasonable goals and a process of measurement.

3. Once you get going, don’t be afraid to ask for help – but be sure to research consultants beforehand.

4. There are millions of people there (the NYC metaphor continues). If you want to get noticed, you have to be different. Pinpoint your audience and determine what about you will set you apart to them, and run with it.

5. Social media is not an end. Integrate social media with traditional media.

6. Last but certainly not least when using social media, address negative comments. A definite plus to social media is that online communities will often correct themselves. People who have had good experiences with brands tend to swoop down and tackle those who say negative things. I’ve noticed this in action in my few weeks of helping Facebook fan pages. True supporters of a brand will come to the rescue often before anyone else steps in.

When traditional media was the only communication tool around, information could only be “pushed” to consumers. By integrating traditional media and the “pull” function of social media, brands can now connect with consumers on a personal level and create relationships, rather than just sales. And I think that’s a topic that isn’t worth avoiding.

I had the privilege of going to Social Media Club Greenville’s February meeting on Monday morning. Yes, I braved the frigid weather and 50 minute drive from Clemson to Greenville to attend – and it was totally worth it.

The presenters all provided insight into social media platforms like Meetup, TubeMogul and Flickr and creating iPhone applications.

All great information, but that’s not to say most of it didn’t fly over my head.

Truth is, I’ve been trying to pinpoint where I want to stand in the world of social media. Because when you say something on Twitter, post an image on Flickr or put a video on YouTube, you’re saying something to the world. It’s intimidating to think about about how many eyes see your message. You don’t want to say anything stupid.

That’s where Kim Madden, the last presenter at the meeting, helped me out. Like me, she doesn’t have a monumental presence in the online world, although it seems like so many others do. And that’s okay. You have to think about what you want to say to the world, even though sometimes you don’t want to say anything. Share a story of success – or better yet- of failure. You don’t have to have 100,000 followers on Twitter, you just have to be relevant to the audience who’s listening.

I might not taken away tools from the meeting that are going to shoot Full Circle PR or its clients into the stars, but I was reminded of a universally important concept – relevance. And that’s an idea I’d like to share with the world.

I just returned home from my fourth trip to Outdoor Retailer Winter Market, a bi-annual get together (translation: trade show) of outdoor-related companies and organizations.  It’s a great group of folks, and I always enjoy getting the chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.

One trend I noticed this year, more than ever before, was the proliferation of social media tools used throughout the industry.  Let me tell you, these outdoor folks are one technically-savvy bunch.  The place was abuzz with tweets, videos, blog updates and Flickr posts.  Companies offered deals to booth visitors who mentioned they’d seen their message online.  It definitely seemed like anyone who was anyone was using social media in some way shape or form.

From a PR perspective, I thought it was really interesting how many more outdoor blogs were represented on the show floor this year.  Folks like GearJunkie.com and ActiveGearReview.com have attended and covered the show for years, but it seemed their presence was felt even more.

I was able to sit down and chat with several of these outdoor bloggers and I asked them about the shift to more online media models from traditional print magazines (I hate I missed former National Geographic Adventurer editor Steve Casimiro’s panel discussion “The Media is Dead. Long Live Media” on Saturday, but I followed the conversation along on Twitter while sitting in the airport, natch).  The bloggers I spoke to seemed very optimistic about the direction their sites were taking – most spoke of triple digit growth in traffic.

And since most of the bloggers I spoke to are veteran journalists themselves, or have some experience in the media world, they didn’t seem too annoyed at the onslaught of PR communications prior and during the show.  In fact most said they found the information PR people sent over relevant and helpful to their readers.  For the record, the biggest complaints I heard about PR folks were about those who A) didn’t follow up to a media request for information and/or product or B) waited until the last minute to try and get information out and then expect it to be included.

Don’t think it was all doom and gloom for the magazines, either, though.  The print journalists I met with had a lot of enthusiasm about their product.  Sure their 2009 was tough, but many said they were still seeing stable subscription rates.  As one writer told me, “We operated pretty lean already, so when we did have to make cuts, it didn’t have to be as drastic as some other outlets.”

And honestly, I still love reading a magazine.  Sure I have a RSS feed set up to aggregate my blog feeds, and I monitor those throughout the day.  But when I’m at home winding down from the day, I like to pick up my Shape or Southern Living and catch up on the features. I think there’s still a place for that in our world.  But I digress….

I’m looking forward to reading more of the outdoor blogs I met at the show, and seeing how the media industry will continue to evolve as readers demand more real-time, content rich information.  The media is dead.  Long live the media.

Ok, so typically on this blog we try to impart our own bit of wisdom and opinions about things going on around us. But today, I came across this article and just thought it was so right on (in my mind, at least) that I wanted to post it again here.

So without further ado or rambling from me, here is a link to Ian Lurie’s blog post about the 45 things you should be doing in social media marketing but probably aren’t. Enjoy. And thanks, Ian, for the great reminders!