Forward Podcast 38 is an inspirational story of connection as Paull Young takes a look at the Frozen Peas Community that has risen up in support of Susan Reynolds.

Susan blogs at Case Notes from the Artsy Asylum and is recognized as one of the ‘most loved’ members of the Twitter Community. In December Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer - a journey she has been tracking at a new blog, Boobs on Ice and via her extensive Twitter network. As Susan began her personal battle, a remarkable story of connection and community sprung up as her online friends activated a support network through Twitter and other blogs in solidarity with Susan.
This resulted in the Frozen Pea Fund, a fundraising effort to support breast cancer research. If you’re new to this story, it has already been told better than I am able in the Washington Post. The author of that Washington Post piece, Craig Colgan (who also blogs at The Municipalist), joins us for this podcast as he discusses how he found this story through social media, took it through the editorial process and then joined the Twitter community (as @ccwriter) to follow the story even further.

It’s an inspirational story of the power of connection, caring and community. The story still continues and you can be a part of it by supporting the Frozen Pea Fund in any way you are able.

Show Notes

00:15: Paull introduces the podcast.

01:30: The interview begins as Susan Reynolds and Craig Colgan introduce themselves and share where they can be found on the web.

05:10: Susan, Paull and Craig explain what Twitter is (and Paull points to our earlier podcast on Twitter with Doug Haslem.)

06:30: Susan tells the story about the growth of her online community through Twitter and other social media venues.

10:30: Susan shares the back story that leads to her diagnosis with breast cancer and the story of the day she was diagnosed.

14:30: Susan continues to tell the story of the day she was diagnosed, including how she was Tweeting from her phone at the Dr’s surgery, without being able to see her friends response.

17:40: Susan tells the beginning of the PEAS as an emblem for her fight and her community.

20:30: Susan and Paull chat about the rise of the PEAvatars as the Twitter community showed their support for Susan by changing their avatars to feature peas as a symbol of support.

23:00: Paull asks Susan about how the rise of the Frozen Pea Fund came about through the work of Connie Reece, Cathleen Rittereiser and others.

25:45: Paull asks Craig how he first came across Susan’s story and how the story developed into his Washington Post piece.

29:30: Craig and Paull discuss the fluid relationship between traditional and social media that occurred around Craig’s WaPo story and Craig explains how the story grew extra legs through the support of the online community.
33:40: Craig shares his thoughts on the power of connection that are highlighted by Susan’s story.

35:50: Susan shares some of the things she has learned, along with some touching examples, from her journey with the PEAS so far.

40:30: Susan provides a call to action, highlighting some of the important ways she sees that people can help.

42:30: Craig points to the lesson he has taken from Susan’s story: “People are looking for reasons to connect, to help each other. People enjoy it, they love it. We forget this… but this shows us that people want to participate and do good”

Listen Now:

 Forward Podcast 38 - Susan Reynold's and the Frozen PEAS Community [48:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3458)

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In 2006 Dell had 78,700 global employees, revenue of close to $56 billion and Fortune magazine ranked it as the 25th largest company on its Fortune 500 list and 8th on the top 20 list of most admired companies in the USA. They’re kind of a big deal. So it is all the more noteable that they are having the culture of their organization changed by embracing social media.

In this interview Paull Young is joined by Laura Thomas, Lionel Menchaca, Caroline Dietz, Arlette Salcedo and Jacqui Zhou from Dell’s social media team as they talk in detail about their approach to social media. They discuss how they have used tools like their Direct2Dell blog, IdeaStorm, Studio Dell web videos and a Second Life presence to start a new relationship with their customers through two way communication. They also talk about what they have learned from the process that has seen a shift internally in their company’s culture which has been matched by a shift in online consumer sentiment from 50% negative to 23% negative in just one year.

The Dell team will be paying attention to this post, so please take some time to check out their work and leave a comment - it’s a case study worth learning from.

In other Forward related news - if you are anywhere near Athens, Georgia this coming weekend (October 19-20) be sure to come along to the CONNECT social media and PR conference at Grady College. Paull will be presenting a case study on Forward and also a couple of breakout sessions on Second Life and podcasting.

Also, if you enjoy the Amish portion of our Forward Podcast rambling you’ll be excited to hear that Luke has started up his own show with his employer BlogTalkRadio. It’s called The Rundown, it airs live every Tuesday at 1:30pm ET and I’m sure it will be an enjoyable and informative listen.

Finally, the weekend after next (October 26-27) Paull will be attend Podcamp Boston where he’ll be presenting on a panel about Reputation Management for Digital Natives. The event looks like it is going to be an amazing learning opportunity and I hope our panel will be particularly useful for Forward Podcast listeners - be sure to say g’day if you’ll be there.

Technorati Tags: dell, social media, direct2dell, Ideastorm, Studio Dell, online engagement, online community, online monitoring, conversational marketing, online relationships, crowdsourcing, blogging, corporate blogs, corporate blogging

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 Forward Podcast 33 :: Social Media in Action at Dell [42:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (988)

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Just a quick mention that DC chapter of the Social Media Club has a meet-up coming up this week:

Social Media Club - Washington, DC
Thursday, Feb. 22
6-8:30pm
Hosted by Edelman
1875 I St. NW
Washington, DC, 2006

I’m helping to host this one and would personally love to meet some of you that are in the DC area, so I encourage you to come out! There will be food, beer, wine and great conversation. It’s completely free, but we do ask that you pre-register so we’ll know how many to expect.

At each meeting of the Social Media Club, we discuss a variety of issues relating to new media. This week, we’ll take a closer look at the online aspects of the 2008 presidential campaigns. (Did you notice, McCain just launched a new site. He’s got my thumbs-up as far as the site itself goes. Want to hear more analysis? Attend the meet-up!)

And while students are very welcome to attend this and any other Social Media Club event, if you’re underage … and you have a drink … I will hunt you down myself!! Do I really have to say it? Be lawful.

For more about the Social Media Club, visit their site. And to see other events I recommend for young PR folks — including, perhaps, a Social Media Club event in your city — visit the “Forward - Young PR Events” groups at Upcoming.org or check out our new events calendar.

Technorati Tags: smc, smcdc, pr students, young pr pros, youngprevents

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We all know that I got my current job at Edelman because of blogging. (Well, that’s the short version.) We know that employers — many of the large agencies, especially — have clearly recognized the need to build up their own online-focused practice groups, so they’re hiring webby folks as quickly as they can find them. You know social media, you’ve got a job.

Some students, however, make the mistake of thinking that learning about new media and understanding the online conversation points to a direct career path of all-day-every-day online-focused work. Wrongo!

I can say, with a good deal of confidence, that we are moving toward a time when all practitioners — whether you’re in healthcare, travel and tourism, or crisis management — will need to have some basic new media skills. The way I look at it, new media (dealing with social media, social networks, blogs, etc.) is just another form of media. The other types of media are all currently covered in pretty much every PR degree. I know in Auburn’s program, we learned how to write press releases, as well as how to write scripts for radio/television announcements. We learned how to work with journalists and how to pitch a story. Everyone seems to accept all these as essential skills for a PR professional. So why is it that when educators try to incorporate new media into the curriculum, they’re met with resistance — both from administrators and students?

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As a spin off to Leo Bottary’s great post about “Basic Assumptions and The News Media,” I’d like to pose the question “How do you avoid being misquoted?”

Like many PR folk, I’ve had clients who were afraid of media interviews - clients who absolutely despised the idea of talking “on record” with reporters. In my experience, it usually stemmed from a horrible misquote experience years back.

My solution was to revisit that exact bad experience with them, and explain how I would have managed the interview process differently - via key messages, talking slower when giving complex answers, reiterating numbers and messages s/he didn’t want misquoted, following up with clarification via email, etc.

Once the client realized just how much s/he (or their PR person) didn’t do to manage the interview the last time, s/he was willing to try it again with the added tactics for preventing misquotes.

So, what counsel do you give clients to prevent misquotes during the interview and, as the PR advisor, what steps can you take before and after the interview to assure the most accurate quote?

Technorati Tags: pr, public relations, media relations, media interviews

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I gave a short guest lecture on social media at one of my MBA classes this past week. I told the class I believe there is a positive linear correlation between the amount of PR elements offered to reporters and the quantity/quality of media coverage generated.

Assuming there is real news value with the announcement/release, PR pros will almost always see an increase in the quantity and quality of media coverage when more “elements” are offered to reporters. PR elements include a well-written press release, source interviews, pre-written quotes, images, audio, video, third-party expert interviews, etc. - all of which are easily accessible in a social media press release.

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The whole point of this site is to act as a springboard for young PR professionals and students. So we think that when major issues come up in the field of public relations, this should be the first place you want to come to get the issue spelled out in plain terms. So, here goes for a major topic of interest in the PR blogosphere right now. But first a little background for those who might want it:

Background on Uses of Social Media

One thing that may be hard to understand until someone really spells it out like this is how exactly companies are trying to use blogs and other social media. One trend we are seeing, is a movement away from advertisements which some companies feel consumers can see right through and are not effective, to a more consumer-engaging way of communicating positive ideas about your company. That’s where blogs come in.

Granted, this idea is not catching on at lightening speed and is having a kind of slow adoption rate, but many people feel that it is the way of reaching consumers in the future, or any target audience for that matter.
(For some, this might be old hat, but who knows, this might be helping others…)

So some companies are looking to have conversations with their publics instead of sending one-way messages through advertisements that they can only hope the consumer will respond to positively. Some companies are responding to new media by having a customer service function which goes out and responds to complaints or queries about products posted on various consumers’ blogs. I have had that happen to me personally. Orvis did a remarkable job of finding where I had complimented a program of theirs and the company wrote me personally saying they were glad I enjoyed a particular program they were doing. I was impressed, heck I am sitting here still talking about it on this site, and that’s what other companies are trying to do: reinforce positive images or get rid of negative opinions of their company that are showing up in blogs for the rest of the world to see on the Internet.

Other than customer service, word-of-mouth campaigns are being started through blogs to reach audiences, and Wal-Mart is one company who has begun similar efforts.

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I attended a very interesting PRSA teleseminar today on communication strategy during class-action lawsuits by Helio Fred Garcia of the Logos Institute for Crisis Management and Executive Leadership. Garcia is the president and founder of Logos Consulting Group, the executive director of the Logos Institute, as well as an instructor for NYU’s brand new Master’s in Corporate Communication program. He is also one of the authors of the just-released book “Reputation Management“. While he mainly focused today on class-action litigation, Garcia’s lessons can be applied to most all lawsuit situations, as well as to dealing with NGOs and activist groups. One of the most interesting things he discussed is the symbiotic relationship between lawyers, the media and government regulators. Below are some key learnings from the seminar.

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Owen Lystrup has written a post about media relations over at Into PR that has stirred up some really valuable discussion. He’s presented the following question:

When pitching a journalist on a story, do you call after sending an e-mail and release, or wait?

And several people have taken the time to contribute some really insightful answers via comments. I do believe the overall consensus is “It depends.”

As I noted (and I know this thought is shared by many) you should most certainly start with doing the research to make sure you’re sending it to journalists or bloggers who would actually be interested in the information. Plus, I feel that while it’s your job to present your client’s angle … you’ll certainly get better results if you take the journalist’s perspective into account as well. By thinking your pitch (or your follow-up) through from their perspective, you’ll be able to present it in a way that will be more appealing and yield better results. Quite frankly, if a journalist hasn’t responded to a pitch you sent … and when you stop and think, “If I were this person, would I care about what I just pitched?” … and the answer is “no” … don’t follow up!

On the other hand, if you know that journalist would genuinely be interested in that information and you’re honestly concerned that the email got lost in his/her Inbox or whatever … then yes, you could consider giving them a call. (Also factor in any previous relationship you or your client has with them.) Furthermore, as Todd And suggests in a comment:

The trick is never to say “I’m just following up to make sure you received my release.” That’s the fast track to the reporter’s bad side. Instead, I prefer to add a piece of information or a fact not mentioned in the press release. If I can give the reporter something they don’t already have it will demonstrate value and increase my chances of arranging an interview (and therefore increase the odds of placement).

But read Owen’s post and the ensuing comments to get the whole idea.

Technorati Tags: pitching, media relations, blogger relations, pr, public relations

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That is the sub-headline for an Associated Press article by David Bauder I found called, “Fox News handles PR like it’s a contact sport.”

Catches your attention doesn’t it?

The gist of the article is that Fox News has a very unconventional way of responding to attacks on their network.

After very negative comments from Ted Turner, calling the network propoganda and relating its popularity to that of Hitler’s in Germany before World War II, a Fox spokeswoman, Irena Briganti replied, “Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind. We wish him well.”

In a reply to George Clooney’s criticism of Bill O’Reilly, the network responded, “We are disappointed that George has chosen to hurt Mr. O’Reilly’s family in order to promote his movie. But it’s obvious he needs publicity considering his recent string of failures. We wish him well in his struggle to regain relevancy.”

Ouch, huh?

Bauder says at the beginning of his article, “If someone at Fox News Channel wishes you well, watch your back. The seemingly benign sentiment is a creative signature of Fox’s public relations, usually accompanied by a kneecapping. It’s something like a kiss from a Mafia don.”

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