Online Relations

Obviously, the internet is paramount to modern day public relations. In today's world, a public relations campaign that doesn't incorporate the internet into any of the phases whether implementation through e-mail or research through databases, would be a definite failure. My entire senior internship is based on the internet and social media and I am learning new tricks and trends every day. The internet is the most fast paced and the most popular media channel that has ever existed and it is changing every moment.

Maybe the Internets popularity is due to the wide variety of utilities it covers across the spectrum for almost every industry and interest. It can be used as a platform for communication between employees, consumers, the media, and investors. It can also be an invaluable research tool for students, professionals and almost any individual that can operate a keyboard.

One can find countless articles scattered across the world wide web on the value of the internet to a public relations professional. I read these articles on a daily basis to stay current with social media trends and to be always learning. One in particular that fell across my screen from one of my favorite websites Mashable, was titled, "12 Incredibly Useful Digital Tools for PR" by Mark Pack, posted on April 4th. When talking about the internet, timeliness is of the utmost importance, because of how quickly tools can be outdated and the next big thing comes along.

This article lists the tools as follows

1. Google Analytics -key for understanding content and consumers
2. Google Insights for Search - great marketing tool for understanding trends in searches
3. Google Keywords Tool - useful to find out what people are actually using to search for your brand
4. NameChek - a service that allows you to check usernames against 150 other web services
5. PeerIndex - tool for analyzing twitter accounts
6. Facebook Insights -the comings and goings on facebook based on content
7.  Youtube Analytics - check out viewership fluctuations
8. Google Alerts -e-mail alerts sent based on specific search terms
9. Radian6 - online marketing tool that isn't free.
10. Hootesuite - great for managing multiple social media accounts and having the ability to generate insight reports
11. Buffer - allows you to schedule updates based on when people will actually see them!?
12. Bit.ly - I use this everyday at my internship to shorten links and track clicks

So far, I've used Google Analytics, Facebook insights, youtube insights, google alerts, hootesuite and bit.ly. I am definitely going to do research into the rest of these tools, especially Buffer.

Crisis Communication

A crisis communication plan helps an organization establish guidelines and expectations of what to do - or what not to do - when challenged with a crisis. This chapter reminded me a lot about the state of Vermont's response to Tropical Storm Irene, and more specifically related to this course, Dotty Shnure's response on behalf of Green Mountain Power. The components listed on page 299 of the textbook were all elements that Dotty addressed during the hours following the storm.

• Who is the crisis manager?
• Who is on the crisis management team?
• Where is the emergency operations center?
• Where is the media information center?
• How will you communicate with all stakeholders?

From what I recall, Dotty was largely the crisis manager, reacting immediately and spending all night making phone calls and pivotal decisions in an office which was to become the emergency operations center. She invited the media in and sent them regular and consistent updates to keep everyone in the loop about what exactly was happening. Her dedicated to managing the crisis was clear, as she not only spent all night addressing issues at work, but continued to work throughout the next day, because the crisis didn't rest. "Crisis plans should take into account that some crises involve an around-the-clock response. That requires a certain level of redundancy, with several people trained for each CMT position" (Guth 299).

Crisis reactions should be immediate and isn't over until the crisis is solved and plans are in place for a future response. Ideally, a crisis plan has been prepared and practiced, but sometimes organizations and individuals must pull from previous crisis' to gauge the appropriate reaction. In the case of Tropical Storm Irene, the VTresponse.org website sprang up to facilitate connections between the Vermonters in need of help and the volunteers able and willing to assist. This website was based off of a website the creators used to deal with the outpouring of volunteers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, using previous crisis' to gauge reactions.

Social media was a key component to the crisis communication for Vermont's response to Tropical Storm Irene. The hashtag #VTresponse helped organize volunteer groups and assistance. "Social media has played a huge role in the relief effort. The hashtag #VTresponse quickly became popular Monday morning on Twitter, and real-time updates of the situation across the state have been prevalent. Even Governor Shumlin has continuously updated his Twitter account throughout the storm and aftermath. By Monday evening, vtresponse.com had over 8,000 visits to the site. Two days later the site had received over 5,000 emails and 95,000 page views." (VTresponse.org).

Political & Public Policy Communications

Public relations has been involved in politics for decades, but as trends in public relations often do, has taken a slightly different approach in recent years. As our textbook states, 'Young people don't have an explicitly negative view of government, but they tend to feel it is remote. There has been a huge shift in the past generation toward voluntary sector work, the fact that you can control who receives your services.' As a result of this trend, many candidates have focused their attention toward older, more reliable voters. This is why groups such as Rock the Vote work hard to engage younger voters in the political process." (Guth 275). It's no secret that the most successful political campaigns reach out to younger demographics through their own channels of communications. This could be seen on a National level with Obama's Presidential campaign for Change, and also on a more local level more recently with the 2012 election for the Mayor of Burlington.

Miro Weinberger won the 2012 election by a landslide, and some say this was largely due to a massive social media push. According to this Seven Days article, "Friends with Benefits: How Miro Weinberger's Social Media Network Helped Him Win the Burlington Mayor's Race", " a powerful social-networking presence helped the previously unknown Weinberger build name recognition and compete with his opponents’ more established, traditional networks" (Machado).

Social media is a direct channel for personalized and individual communication. With regards to politics, it can help establish a connection with a candidate and humanize them, especially if the candidate is composing their own updates, which occured during the Miro campaign. "Weinberger jumped into Twitter early, blasting out tweets from his @MiroBTV account even before declaring his candidacy. Wisely, Weinberger did his own tweeting for much of the campaign, although “Team Miro” took over some Twitter duties late in the game." (Machado).

The danger associated with using social media during a political campaign is losing control of the message - or more accurately, not having control of the public response. "The viral nature of social media means a candidate is never wholly in control of his or her online presence. Weinberger’s “Mirocialite” team of campaign staffers and supporters boosted his visibility daily by tweeting links to his much-vaunted plans or key endorsement statements, while rushing to the campaign’s defense when others criticized him."(Machado).

Public opinion/ politics and public relations will always go hand in hand. A political candidate wants to build good will among the constituents and voting community, and public relations helps facilitate just that.

Ethics & Social Responsiblity

According to the textbook, Adventures in Public Relations,  "In public relations work, problems of ethical ignorance tends to cluster into five areas: overwork, legal/ethical confusion, cross-cultural ethics, short-term thinking, and virtual organizations." (Guth 242).

The first problem mentioned in the textbook is overwork. Overwork is by far, absolutely one of my most pressing personal and professional issues. It may seem to some that I tend to 'drop the ball' on some projects, but that is because they do not have the entire picture before them. For example, this semester I have taken on four classes, plus one online class, an internship with WaterWheel and P Hish which I have maintained since May 2009, an internship with the local aquarium, a part time job with Edible Arrangements, a work-study position with Sustain Champlain, and I am a dog walker 5 days a week in the New North End (one day a week in the Old North End too!). This doesn't even begin to include being the President of the Environmental Club and still maintaining meaningful relationships with those closest to me.

I have to admit, ethics sometimes fall short on the long list of obligations I have set out for myself. Occasionally, I may fall victim to Challenge number 4, 'Short-term thinking'. "Short term thinking is poor critical thinking is poor critical thinking. It involves refusing to consider the long-term consequences of your actions." (Guth 243). Struggling to juggle the various projects I am involved on within each of the above listed obligations can lead to short-term insanity (hopefully). I tend to take on more than I am physically and mentally capable of, but that is because my enthusiasm trumps my doubt. One of my positions with ECHO aquarium is as a curator of sorts, for the digital exhibits. This means I have to exercise ethical analysis daily to decide what makes it into the exhibit and what doesn't.

Josh Sternberg, the author of the Mashable article'"Why Curation is Important to the Future of Journalism', wrote "Ethical standards and transparency (like citing/crediting sources) are essential in building trust in a curator. DeGhett says, “The point is to share [news items] and lead people to it, not to claim it as your own… [But] my selection of sources is intended to make an argument, and to support certain things, not to present everything that’s out there or every side.” (Sternberg 1). I have discovered this is could be easy thing to lose sight on, because when curating one becomes so involved in the information they are absorbing in such a concentrated amount of time that it is not always possible to get a full picture.

Crossing Cultures

After studying abroad in Ireland, and traveling around Europe I gained such a better understanding of myself through relating with other cultures. There were things you did (or more often didn't do) in order to respect cultural beliefs and boundaries. In Ireland, you don't bring up the Northern Ireland conflict, you don't order black & tans, and as a general rule I avoided political talk.

After working abroad in Ireland, I started to understand business culture and began to pick up differences between American & Irish business culture. One of the first things I noticed, was that it was okay to be up to 30 minutes late to work and even a meeting. It isn't until 30 minutes have passed that people start to become annoyed that you're tardy. The book mentions that Switzerland ranked first in the desire to comply with schedules & Mexico ranked last. I wonder where Ireland would fall on that list.

Since my current internship at ECHO is managing their social media channels, I cannot help but look at each of the topics in our textbook through the social media lens. Cultural communication is more than being aware of color meanings and fashion faux pas. It can be about spreading awareness of other cultures and international issues. Twitter has proven to be a useful tool in connecting cultures. Jessica Faye Carter wrote a Mashable article on October 14, 2012 titled, "Why Twitter Influences Cross Cultural Engagement". Since Twitter has become an international communication platform, it is easy to learn about other cultures with just a few clicks and browsing through what's trending. It is no doubt spreading globalization, as the textbook referred to when they identified four trends that are increasing globalization

• "Trade-import and export transactions among nations
• Movement of Capital - the flow of investment money between countries., including foreign aid and private stock purchases
• Movement of people - the mobility of workers who cross national borders in search of better jobs or in fulfillment of employment obligations
• Spread of knowledge and technology - the exchange of information and equipment among nations

B2B

Business-to-Business Relations is yet another area falling under the public relations umbrella. According to the textbook, B2B is "the management of relationships with businesses that have resources that your business needs to achieve its goals." An example of this could be the supplier of office necessities for a firm, or a car rental company that a major resort deals with regularly. The definition above is slightly one-sided, and I think it is important to look at both sides of these business relationships to determine what is beneficial for all parties involved.

Partner Relationship Management and Customer Relationship Management both fall under B2B relations and employ digital marketing tactics. As the media world shifts more and more towards a digital platform, online marketing makes sense and can be the most effective and efficient way to develop business to business relationships. As a general theme of this blog (a direct result of this textbook), I looked for ways to bring some currency to business-to-business relations. Below is a link to a Mashable article by Maria Ogneva, written July 11, 2011, titled "10 Tips to Better B2B Community Management."

Not that I want to beat a dead horse, but social media has once again, become a major channel of communications for Business to Business marketing. Maria Ogneva's article provides a few easy tips to maximize the utility of these virtual communities relative to B2B communications.

1. Know when to create your own community - If there is already an existing community where interactions are taking place, converse there. If your objective is a bit more narrow, outline it and use it to start your own community.
2. Think through the purpose - Choose the online community you join based on your objectives. Certain communities have different benefits for interacting with customers, brands and other entities. Decide how members will interact based on that objective.
3. Establish membership guidelines - Depending on who you want to interact with, a community can cater to different groups; employees, VIP customers, specific clients, or completely public.
4. Understand your members - Speak to your members wants & needs, If your community is for employees, you want to help make them look good in front of their superiors and peers & help them get their jobs done.
5. Outline roles - Who is participating and how? Is the community 'self-policed' or are their moderators in place to encourage conversation and minimize clashing issues.
6. Establish a vision & charter - Look at your objective and establish goals, plot a path to reach those goals. Transparency is key, share this information with members.
7. Success metrics - Track things like growth, engagement, active users. Give surveys and listen to the feedback.
8. Have a community manager - the goal is for the community to be self sustaining, but community managers bring accountability.
9. Establish internal processes - Encourage cross functional interactions
10. Enable sharing - Community members should be sharing success so that other members can visualize success and strive.

A few thoughts after reading the article...

I was reminded of a peer telling me that they use client based blogs at their PR internship. These blogs are essentially a platform for communication and updates between this firm & their clients. I imagine they encourage transparency & help both parties measure ROI.

As we have mentioned in class, social media is like a tool inside a toolbox of tactics. It is not the toolbox, or the only tactic available to accomplish communication goals, it is merely the current sexy trend. While studying abroad in Ireland, I interned at The World Trade Centre Dublin. A good portion of the internship was spent trying to conquer digital marketing for a B2B conference in America. The conference is called Futurallia, and it is designed to bring together international businesses across a wide variety of sectors. This is a link to a blog I wrote about the event for the Web Port Global blog Futurallia: International B2B Matchmaking Opportunity.

Consumer Relations

Trends in Consumer Behavior, according to textbook

1. Women with more spending power; The power of the purse-holder
2. Diversity;Ethnicity is growing; black, Hispanic, Asian, gay ect.
3. Entrepreneurs & Telecommuting
4. Health Care, Aging & Alternative Medicine
5. Adult Education; Don't stop learning!
6. Demand for Luxury Goods
   

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but the biggest trend in consumer behavior currently is connecting with consumers on their own level. Where are consumers? Social Media, obviously. Brands and businesses have to make an effort in the social media realm if they want to maintain solid relationships with their consumers, especially if they are an e-commerce entity. I know this textbook is outdated, but even when it was published social media was not a new concept. 



This great article from Mashable.com talks about social media tactics and consumers How Social Media Can Reinvigorate Consumer Advocacy. The article suggests that there are certain approaches that should be considered.

Games!: "Consumer activism needs to be fun & gratifying". Companies like Groupon & Living Social have shaken up the consumer's experience. It's puts both power and entertainment back into the consumer's hands. Websites like Carrotmob.org help encourage consumer spending in socially conscious companies. "Vote with your Money" is their catch phrase.

Building up Social Conscious Consumption: Supporting new products & industries that can change the world. Buying products like electric cars & energy efficient appliances can help put the pressure on government and regulatory associations to make the morally right consumption decisions. If these associations see the power of consumers through the choices (purchases) they are making, it highlights the 'need for change'.

Point of Purchase Activism: Location based pop-ups during purchases Showing online consumers eco & efficiency options

Lift the Veil: Consumers get smart about inauthentic & authentic messages. They can tell when you're faking it and they are cutting through the clutter.

Rapid Response:  Consumers have the power to apply pressure to brands and companies not aligned with their own social values.

Consumer based social change can be the future for consumer relations. The more involved with media the consumer is, the more aware they are of a brands values. The article sums up the purpose of outlining these trends in a well rounded conclusion: 

"There’s a lot of exciting work to be done to build a 21st century consumer movement. Organizers, programmers, social media mavens, progressive companies and everyday consumers can be part of the next great wave of technology-driven social change. To be effective, that movement will need to be fearless, fact-based, hopeful, culturally mainstream and — most importantly — fun."