I have a small confession to make before I fully write this blog post. Even though I am a public relations blogger, I am not female. Why is this significant? Well, because 73 percent of the members of the Public Relations Society of America are women. Similarly, the population of Pinterest is equally divided. Forbes reports that the estimates range from 72% to a staggering 97% of its user base has been reported as female. So should men use Pinterest? Should this fact dissuade male practitioners from becoming involved in Pinterest?

Of course not!

Just like all public relations communications, make sure you know your audience. Are you marketing something that is useful to a population which is overwhelmingly female? Or would you be better served staying with Facebook or Twitter? If you are trying to promote sales of your company’s new fishing rods, then it might be best to look elsewhere (not that there are no women that fish, but it is much more likely that more men prefer the activity to women). However, if you’re promoting something relating to health, well-being, fashion, creative crafting, or a slew of other areas that can will interest women, there is no better market than Pinterest.

Here are some simple guidelines:

1. Pinterest is the exact opposite of writing for radio. You absolutely must think visually for your campaign to be effective. High color, high interest, unusual, shocking photos will draw more attention than just posting your boring logo up. A great guideline is to ask people unrelated to your company (particularly if they use Pinterest) if their immediate reaction to the visual is something like, “Oh! That’s really cute!” or “That is useful/interesting!” or even better, “I totally have to try that!”
2. Do not only self promote. Pinterest is unusual to most male practitioners because we want to instinctively use social media to meet our own interests and ends. However, by making sure you promote other individuals on Pinterest as well, you build a sense of community and belonging. If you only self promote, you’re going to be looked down upon.
3. Promote your industry! This is closely related to number 2. If you are in charge of public relations at a mall, pin a few interesting things about why shopping at a mall is much more beneficial than going to just a big box store (unless such a store is an anchor for your mall of course). Even if you don’t promote your mall/business by name, you’re promoting your industry which creates positive positioning.
4. Just like the “post to Facebook,” or “tweet this,” buttons, add “pin-it” buttons to your blog posts and online activities/campaigns. If you do it frequently enough, there is a good chance you’ll generate some organic Pinterest interest.
5. Make sure you post on multiple subjects! If you’re marketing a bridal company, dedicate boards to fitness (brides have got to look good), general fashion (brides wear other clothes besides white dresses right?), favorite recipes (hey! A girl has got to eat!)

Be cautious however! The world of Pinterest is not without its pitfalls:

1. If you re-pin something, make sure you check the source/back story of it. You do not want to look foolish later.
2. Be active! This is the warning I like to give out to any social media specialist. If you start using a new venue, you have to keep up with it. Otherwise, months down the road, someone might find your page and think you are inattentive, which damages your credibility.
3. Time your pins properly! Do not post a huge amount of pins all at once. Space them out. There is no quicker way to get unfollowed, unfriended, or otherwise ignored besides spamming peoples’ walls, pin-boards, or twitter feeds.
4. Be social! Like I said before, like and promote the work of others. Thank people when they re-pin your work. Follow other interesting users. Try following users back. They will like that!

Bonus Article: 9 Businesses Using Pinterest Contests

In public relations, it’s okay to be a little bit shallow. In fact; public relations is the perfect area to understand the importance of being shallow. Now, I’m not referring to people, nor would I advocate making snap judgements about anything (despite our normal tendencies to do so), I’m talking about building image.

The importance of a well maintained building is paramount in order to establish a repoire with target publics even before you are able to meet them. This is difficult to understand without visuals, so I’ve taken the liberty to pick out two very opposite ends of the spectrum to illustrate my point. The first is a great illustration of how to scare away clientele:

It is difficult to imagine any other reaction to this building besides a mild terror and a realization that if their building is that horrifyingly decaying – how good can their products be?    It is difficult for individuals who own small/local businesses to justify spending money in building maintenance if they’re having trouble staying afloat in the current economic turbulence. However, without this building upkeep, additional business will be lost, leading to an eventual decline in the business (and perhaps closure if it becomes too extreme).

Naturally, I am writing in generalities. Each business is different. It is important to draw a stark contrast between the above example and my next example.

I’ve had the pleasure of living in the Highland Square neighborhood in Akron, OH for quite some time now. Residents of Akron find the square, quaint, artsy, and overall, more aesthetically pleasing that most of the city. One of the reasons that this neighborhood has maintained its image throughout the years is the local businesses who have taken painstaking steps in preserving the look of the square.

One of those very businesses is Highland Public Relations. Naturally, a good public relations firm knows the importance of building image. In addition, the agency has won Beautification Awards from Keep Akron Beautiful. Below is two pictures of their agency:

Clearly, their building design is uncluttered, welcoming, and easy to find. The signage in front is simple, informative, and straight to the point. It would be hard to expect less from an agency with such an excellent track record.

Their building is clearly an example of a business that wants to give the image of a prosperous and successful company. As opposed to the opposite example above, their clients don’t want to run in terror of the potential horrors which may await them. Quite the opposite, their building actually helps them command more public attention.

(Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with  Highland Public Relations – pictures used with permission)

One of the things that many conservative companies fear when trying new things on internet outlets for social media marketing (be they social media sites or their own websites), is the inability to control the dialogue once introduced. Many times these fears are unsubstantiated. If you have a positive web presence, no major groups attempting to actively object to your business decisions, or any other derailing factors, an online campaign into social media marketing can be a great source of positive image creation.

That being said, many companies should be very wary as to how they use social media marketing and how they introduce new ideas to the public. Shell recently launched (and quickly shut down) an application that allowed users that access their website to create advertisements with their current slogan, “LET’S GO.”

While the slogan itself is actually fine, giving audiences a sense of progress, excitement, and a certain feel of “up-and-at-’em”, when paired with the logo and an environmental group’s message – things tend to end poorly.

So it is important to ask the question before launching a campaign, “If I were an opponent of my company (either business rival or other interest) could I use this new idea that my company is launching to make fun of us?” Or even worse, “Can the jeers generated through our social media marketing campaign go viral and derail the intention?”

I predict that this small issue will not take a big toll on Shell’s public image in the long run. However, it’s always best to avoid these problems entirely. Overall, public relations teams need to be entirely more aware of internet trolls and subgroups on websites such as reddit.com and 4chan.org. If you give them the opportunity to mock you in a completely anonymous forum, they will more than happily do so.

See more examples here.

Part of the human condition is an emotional capacity known as “empathy.” As defined by Merriam-Webster, empathy is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this. If you are a leader in a ‘helping’ field of work, such as healthcare, life guarding, etc, it is imperative to at least project an image to the public of being a caring, empathetic, and kind organization. When an individual (in this case, the owner) in your organization chooses to ignore this concept, you create a management failure and begin to work on a massive public relations nightmare.

Not only did the life-guard in question do something heroic, almost super-human, and save the life of another person, he did so even though it was “against company policy.”

I would like to point out once again, that many times, company policy is unethical, illogical, immoral, or just plain flawed. These policies need to be reviewed constantly to ensure that they keep pace with our society’s ethics.

Not only would a PR practitioner have not fired this man, they would have insured that he had at least 3 interviews set up with local media outlets to give the company a good name (and maybe a bonus on his next paycheck!).

But they chose to fire him. Post firing, there really isn’t much that can be done to help the situation from a public relations perspective. Mortification, apologies, and not only just a renewed job offer, but also a raise. In addition, informing the public that you’re revising your company policies to address this issue for the public is really the only way to go.

Your policy should clearly read, “If a swimmer is drowning on part of the beach that we are not responsible for, you are not responsible to save that individual. Any action beyond that is made as a personal choice and the company cannot be held liable for actions preformed outside of the scope of your position.”

It’s neat, clean, covers the company’s behind in case of an incident, while allowing them to take the positive press from any future incidents.

You can find the source material of this management failure here:

Raw Story Article
Follow up from Bradenton Herald

There comes a time in every PR practitioner’s life in which you make a mistake. We’re all human, it’s understandable. However, the series of mistakes that lead to this video… they are hard to justify.

Creating an effective public relations plan is vital to any sort of corporate communication. The 8 basic elements of any public relations plan are as follows:

1) Situation: What is the problem?

2) Objectives: What needs to happen to create change?

3) Audience: Who are we attempting to change?

4) Strategy: Themes and approaches that can be utilized.

5) Tactics: The nitty gritty of the plan

6) Calendar/ timetable: Dates to start/end campaign, date to determine how long campaign will be effective

7) Budget: Self explanatory – what can you afford?

8 ) Evaluation: Determining if you were successful.

The situation was easily identified and the overall objective of the campaign were right on target. The organization said:

“The campaign will challenge stereotypes of science and show young girls and women that science is fun and can provide great opportunities,” they attempted to explain via press release.”

Despite this, there are 2 steps above in which the organization entirely missed the mark.

3) Audience: Who are we attempting to change?
Organizational Answer: Girls age 13-17.
Doctor’s Answer: Educators, Parents and peers of Girls age 13-17.

4) Strategy: Themes and approaches that can be utilized.
Organizational Answer: Use things that girls stereotypically like (makeup, lipstick, makeup, silly poses, makeup)
Doctor’s Answer: By not treating girls like they’re idiots, maybe we’ll gain more credibility. Let’s do a survey to determine who this target public looks up to and takes advice from then determine our themes.

Our two morals of the story:
1. Know thy audience
-It is imperative to stay up to date on the trends, opinions, and point of view of your target public. Operating on antiquated knowledge which presents an outsiders perspective on women/girls is weak rhetorically at best.

2. If you are unsure of the material you’ve created to convince others, ask a limited focus group what they think.
-I feel as though if any single one of these individuals responsible for this mess had gone home, asked their wives what they thought about the fruit of their labors, the response would have prompted them to never release the video.

Bad Public Relations can most certainly be detrimental to your organization’s image. Instead of looking cool, hip, and encouraging to young girls: this organization now has to back pedal and attempt to prove that they are not sexist, out of touch, and just plain bad at marketing.

Source: Article here

According to a recent NPR article, certain Apple stores are refusing to sell products to Iranian customers.

While I am an advocate of the power of every business to refuse service to problematic individuals, no person can logically support this. The company’s policy indicates that it has embargo regulations on Iran. However, it appears that employees are misinterpreting the policy decisions of the Apple Corporation. This creates a problem for the Apple Public Relations team.

Common sense (no PR practitioner needed) indicates that this is a problem that can be alleviated almost instantaneously. But I’ll get to that in a moment. First I’d like to review the most important rule that I’ve learned in PR:

NEVER, EVER, NOT EVEN ONCE SAY, “NO COMMENT” TO A MEDIA INQUIRY.

“No comment” can mean a range of things, it can mean, “Yes, we’re guilty of what you’re asking us about,” or, “We’d prefer not take responsibility for our actions,” or, “I really wish this problem would go away… maybe it will on its own…”

Already in this case, Apple public relations is off to a terrible start in their PR plan. If I were a PR officer at Apple, our first statement would consist of, “We were previously unaware of these issues, Apple will begin investigating and get to the bottom of the matter. You can expect a phone call in 1 hour and 30 minutes from now.”

From there, I’d contact the stores in question, find out what happened from the associate perspective, and promptly formulate a company response to the issue. In this case, it would be more on the side of mortification/apology. “We are absolutely sorry that our employee misinterpreted our company policy! We’re taking steps to explain the policy to all of our employees so that they do not get our Iran embargo policy confused with having issue selling products to citizens of Iranian decent. We will be issuing a coupon shortly for those who were affected by this for a large discount on the product they were originally seeking to buy. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!”

I’d promptly send out the coupon to those in question. Then I would send an email to all store managers, re-explaining the policy to them and informing them that they must ensure their employees follow the correct/non-discriminatory policy in the future.

Apple is a great company with a great reputation. However, if they ignore this issue, it could stain their image with racism and xenophobia that can lead to loss of sales and stock value.

Foxconn is looking somewhat rough these days. Previously their stock was valued at roughly 6hkd in the middle of February. But now, you’d be hard pressed to find analysts who don’t recommend either dumping most of your Foxconn shares or simply holding on to them.

They have taken certain steps to intervene previously in the crisis. A public apology, an employee raise, a counseling service, and other things have been established in order to slow the backlash of public opinion.

They are fortunate that they are not a US based company and do not have to face the public opinion here (lest they have union leaders starting to recruit their workers).

However, despite all of these factors, this is a public relations case that would be incredibly hard to tackle. When a business lacks the ethical fortitude to give their workers an even remotely safe and happy work environment then there is a serious problem with the management style.

Happy workers produce goods much more efficiently than unhappy ones. This has been proven time and time again. So why doesn’t Foxconn begin to taper employee dissatisfaction by starting with their main complaints? Likely because they view it as costly.

I will be honest here, I would not even begin to attempt a PR campaign until some of the main issues were addressed. They need to institute labor standards that are higher than the ones mandated by government. That way, there would be something to actually brag about in a crisis campaign.

At this point, you could run a very touching advertising/pr campaign with a slogan like, “We are Foxconn.” Pointing out how many workers the company employs, the recent steps that they’ve taken to care for workers, and other factors.

But that doesn’t lead to a very long commercial spot or news release.

Sounds like they need to clean up their act. Yes: they do need some PR assistance, but it would most certainly have to be accompanied with some very severe policy changes.

Read the background on this story here.

After much internal debate, I’ve decided to begin this website as a place that I can publish all of my professional Crisis Public Relations blog musings. There are so many times in our society that organizations, political candidates, and other entities fail to show the public their best face. When organizations do not address issues that are important, they begin the downward decent into an annoying issue, to a major problem which they realize (often too late) that a crisis public relations manager is needed. This is where SocialCPR comes into play.

But first, what is ‘public relations?’

“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” – Public Relations Society of America (modernized definition of 11/12).

It is astounding how many entities opt to not influence the public’s opinion of their entity, and saddening at the same time.

In order to address this issue, I will be writing blog posts on various entities and their attempts to use public relations to help their organization. Good, bad, and ugly.