In media relations 101, you learn that an effective way to secure local PR coverage is to provide a local perspective to a national trend. (For example: National health care reform passes. Local Company contacts Local Newspaper to explain how the legislation will impact their company. That’s localizing a national story.)

That concept applies online, too. See a national story where you can offer a valid perspective? Reach out to bloggers who might be interested offering that angle to their readers. Nothing too earth-shattering — just a slightly different approach.

By looking at effective traditional tactics through a slightly different lens, we can elevate our communication efforts. In fact, we’ve seen this in action twice this week. And with that, I give you a prtini “Double Shot:”

• Spokespeople. Traditionally, brands would hire an actor, athlete or other celebrity to serve as spokesperson for their product. Example: Michael Jordan and Nike, William Shatner for priceline.com or Mark Whalberg for Calvin Klein. We may be seeing a new trend emerge: Established brands are turning to online influencers to fill this role. Virgin America partnered with Gary Vaynerchuck. Firethorn Holdings hired Sarah Evans as “correspondent” for its new product launch. She’ll be interviewing major celebrities at high-profile events, like the BET Awards and parties in the Hamptons.
• Product launches. This week, Ford hosted a virtual reveal event, unveiling the 2011 Expedition first on Facebook. While Ford integrated advertising and PR to drive attention to its Facebook page, the motor company bucked the traditional auto-show debut (where it would break the news to traditional media) and took its message directly to its fans (read: potential buyers) in a forum where word would spread quickly.

That said, most of us (my clients, you readers, the companies we work for) don’t have budgets like Ford or Virgin America, nor the ability to sponsor an event in the Hamptons. Even so, we should recognize the creativity and innovative thinking behind these strategies and brainstorm if/how similar concepts could work for us.

How do you think small- to mid-size businesses can apply lessons from these recent developments?

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Did you participate in the inaugural #chatmixer this spring? We brought together participants from 20+ PR/social media/blogging-related Twitter chats for one big, huge Twitter party. In one hour, we saw 8,000 tweets sent, and more importantly, people made new connections, new chats were discovered and created, and we received many requests for a follow-up event.

Drum roll please …

The next #Chatmixer will take place Thursday, July 29 from 8-9 pm ET.

Thanks to our friends and #u30pro moderators David, Lauren and Scott for letting us “borrow” their normal timeslot and working with us to create an even better event!

Not sure if you should participate in #chatmixer? You absolutely should if:

• You feel like you’re chatting with the same people over and over and want to expand your network.
• You want to connect with other people who work in PR, social media, marketing and related fields.
• You want to discover some new, smart people to learn from.
• You don’t want to miss that awesome party everyone will be talking about.

We’re still finalizing the exact questions for the conversation, but be ready to discuss:

• Knowing when to draw the line when offering opinions about clients, potential clients or your employer
• Collaborating with different departments and different ages
  
• Your office in 10 years

What other topics would you like to see? Leave a comment here, or share on Twitter using the #chatmixer hashtag. As we get closer to the date, we’ll have more details to share. But, in the meantime, save the date and start suggesting questions.

Years from now, this week’s Old Spice social media campaign will still be used as case study. Aside from the obvious lessons about social media engagement, there’s another equally important lesson that we shouldn’t lose sight of: A company’s culture and its willingness to take calculated risks will shape its social media engagement — and success.

Recently, I’ve had interesting, ongoing conversations with a number of friends who work for PR/marketing/advertising agencies about the cultural collisions between social media and “traditional” communication. Lots of complaints about long approval processes. For example, it takes days just to get a blog post approved. All tweets need to be scripted and approved by the agency powers that be. How is that engaging, timely or relevant?

Companies need to put their best foot forward online. That makes sense. But, how can companies do this and still be social, not scripted? Don’t forget, we live in an age where quickness equals relevancy.

If Old Spice can pump out a couple hundred videos in just two days, should it really take that long (or longer) for a smaller company to churn out one blog post? Or, one Facebook update? Or a few tweets? This Old Spice campaign never would have worked if management had to approve every single video created, tweet sent or Facebook update posted.

So, what’s a company to do? 3 tips to get started:

1. Hire the right employees. If someone will be representing your brand in social media, make sure that person possesses the right mix of skills. Just because they’re good at traditional PR, doesn’t mean they’ll excel in this new landscape. Likewise, just because they write a popular personal blog doesn’t mean they can effectively manage social media to achieve business-driven goals.
2. Train your employees. Social media is constantly evolving. Help your employees understand the goals, their role, how you’ll measure success, and how to do their jobs well. Encourage them to read thought-leader blogs, attend webinars or conferences, and network with other social media-types. Provide opportunities to test new tools. Reward out-of-the-box thinking. Position them for success. Don’t just throw them into the deep end and cross your fingers.
3. Create social media guidelines. Establish guidelines to create some boundaries for appropriate and inappropriate behavior and content. If employees get into a “gray” area, they need to understand who to ask. But, if they’re within those boundaries, don’t be a bottleneck. Make sure these guidelines also articulate the approval process, what to do if/when a crisis starts to peculate, and how to live up to the company’s brand standards.

What would you add to this list? How has social media changed your corporate culture? What is your company’s social media approval process? Is it helping or hindering your engagement and effectiveness?

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Last week, I blogged about #WhyWeCelebrate, asking you to join with us to honor the troops during the Independence Day holiday. Showing the true power of social media, you came through. In an incredibly overwhelming way. I want to share a recap of the effort in hopes that nonprofits and cause-marketers can learn from our experience. If you have specific questions about the campaign’s implementation, please email me heather [at] gebencommunication.com.

An Idea is Born

My husband Mike and I were at happy hour last week, chatting about how we wanted to do something more than watch fireworks and go to BBQs to celebrate Independence Day. Family members on both sides have served in the military, so honoring the troops is important to us. And, that’s where #WhyWeCelebrate came originated. The goal was simple:

To encourage people to remember why we celebrate and to honor the people who serve in our country’s military.

Generating Support & Building Community

Because we came up with the idea on June 29, we didn’t have much time. That night, I co-moderated #pr20chat (a weekly Twitter discussion about technology’s influence on public relations). At the end of the conversation, I announced that I was working on a last-minute July 4th project and asked for volunteers to help. I posted the same message on my Facebook wall. From there, a small committee was created. They received one email, explaining the goal and outlining how they could help. Rising to the occasion, this group became the arms and legs of the effort — championing the cause and helping us to spread the word.

Campaign Tools

• Twitter account
• Twitter hashtag
• Facebook community page
• Social media release on Pitchengine.com

From Wednesday, July 1 — Friday July 3 we introduced the idea and suggested ways to get involved. Mike and I also blogged about it and shared it on Facebook. People began sharing tales of loved ones in the military, lessons from grandparents who were vets, and what freedom means to them. They were sharing stories, posting videos, writing heartwarming stories on the Facebook wall, and using the Twitter hashtag … a lot. And it grew from there:

• The Department of Defense used the hashtag multiple times throughout the weekend.
• The Ohio National Guard partnered with us to get a video clip of “Happy July 4th” messages from military currently stationed in Iraq.
• The National Army Museum tweeted with the hashtag.

Mission Accomplished

Like I said earlier, this was an idea cooked up during happy our on a random Tuesday night, so we didn’t create measurable objectives. Even if we had created objectives, this would have far exceeded them. Some stats showing the impact of #WhyWeCelebrate:

• Approximately 330,000 impressions (this is a very rough estimate, using backtype.com figures)
• Approximately 390 tweets
• 8 blog posts
• 50+ Facebook posts
• 200+ Facebook fans

Looking back, there are probably some things we would have done differently — namely, getting an earlier start. More time to plan would have enabled us to get more people involved in the planning and initial promotion, as well as partner with established military groups.

All in all, I’d call this a success. This campaign caused more than a few people to reflect and show appreciation. With that, I want to leave you with this quote, which comes from Steph Majercik’s brother, a soldier currently stationed in Iraq:

We are over here, fighting for what we believe all people on this planet should have. Basic freedoms, fighting to stop a force that once before took these freedoms from these people.

That’s why we celebrate. To everyone who helped make this a big success, our heartfelt appreciation. Thank you.

Have you seen @BPGlobalPR? It’s a feed of sarcastic, witty, sometimes inappropriate tweets from a fake BP PR person. If you take a few minutes and look at the stream of tweets, it’s obviously satire. But, a quick search shows that more than a few people don’t get the joke — and instead believe these 140-character bits come from an real-life PR person representing BP. And, the account is rapidly gaining followers (probably because the tweets are actually funny … if the situation wasn’t so sad). Over the weekend, when John Taylor wrote about the account, it had 900 followers. As of Monday morning? 7,346. (And, look at this screenshot. The retweet rates are high!) Update: As of Tuesday (5/25) afternoon, the account has 25,500+ followers.

Brandjacking is nothing new — remember the Heinz Twitter imposter? The person posing as an official Heinz rep was sharing good news and had developed a base of Heinz fans. Presumably at the request of Heinz, Twitter changed the profile name from @HJHeinz to @Not_HJHeinz. I thought Heinz could have worked with him to continue to share company news, perhaps in a non-official capacity. After all, he had developed a pretty strong following of people interested in Heinz.

But, this BP situation is different. BP is in the midst of a huge crisis — environmental, legal, reputation, etc. And, it’s easy to see how they may not find the humor in these tweets. Also, the account seems to violate Twitter’s terms of service (misusing a trademarked logo, not clearly identifying a parody as such). Should BP request the account be suspended? Would clearly indicating that the account is a parody be enough? What if BP just ignores the account?

If you worked for BP, how would you respond?

TIP: If you want to take steps to help prevent your own brand from being hijacked, use a service like knowem.com. It’s impossible to protect against every potential situation, but this is a good place to start.

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Just over a year ago, the Phoenix Suns signed up for Twitter account. Now, it’s a valuable tool for the organization to have some fun with fans, giveaway tickets and memorabilia, provide team news, and share community relations updates among other things. They’ve amassed more than 20,000 followers and are widely regarded as one of the sports teams that really “gets it.”

So, what’s the secret to their success? Watch this video interview with Jeramie McPeek, the Suns’ VP of interactive services.

The other day, Sarah Evans shared an email exchange with her readers as a means to illustrate why companies might want to consider hiring a social media consultant. As she pointed out, these people can help companies develop a smart strategy, manageable work flow processes, guidelines and an online “voice.”

I’d like to add another reason to this list: To offer counsel and assistance navigating the ever-changing world of communication. So, not only the upfront strategy, but the ongoing assistance and advice. To illustrate my point, let me share two quick examples.

What’s This Mean for Us?

PR and social media consultants can be a resource to answer the “Uh, what’s this mean and what do we do now?” question. If a crisis situation develops, a consultant can offer guidance and help you take the necessary steps to mitigate the damage. Or, the consultant can explain how changes online impact your social media initiatives. For example, Facebook changes always seem to confuse companies. And, the new Connections make it even more complicated. What happens when employees link the “Work” section of their profiles to the newly created Community Pages? This came to my attention when I noticed some former colleagues of mine were connected to what appeared to be a fan page for the agency. When I clicked on the link to check it out, I was taken to one of these Facebook-generated community pages. What did I see? Status updates from the VP of PR’s wife (whose maiden name + married name = the company name) … and an invitation to enter a URL. Now, I’m a nice person, so I entered the correct URL. But, what if I was a disgruntled ex-employee? Imagine the potential havoc that one could wreak by entering incorrect URLs. A social media consultant could help a company understand why this information is showing up on the community pages.

Facebook is creating “connection” pages on your behalf. It’s a bit unclear how these pages will be used, but bottom line, you need to know where your brand is popping up and what steps to take to protect it. So, if you’re reading this post and you haven’t checked Facebook to see if there’s a community page for your company, go do a search right now. See what’s being displayed, and at minimum enter the correct web address.

The Editorial Calendar Evolution

One more example: When I first started my PR career a decade ago, pitching magazines was often synonymous with checking ed cals and finding a topic that matched the client’s angle/news/story. Clearly, news has changed a lot in the past decade. Some magazines still live and die by the editorial calendar. But, that’s not an “across the board” rule. For example, I emailed a magazine contact the other day to find out who would be working on an upcoming article (as identified on the pub’s ed cal). The reporter’s response?

I don’t know what specific topics are on the edit calendar. I do know they’re often changed or ignored completely. So feel free to send along a pitch but I’m not yet sure what we’re supposed to be writing on then.

That’s actually better for my client. I can develop a stronger pitch, instead of crafting something to fit a topic on a calendar. But, if my client didn’t have a PR person doing this legwork, would they have a) bothered checked the ed cal? b) known to ignore the calendar?

The point is this: In addition to helping craft storylines and pitches designed to pique a reporter’s attention, a PR person can provide helpful insights along the way to increase a company’s odds of securing media coverage.

One of my favorite topics is social good. (In fact, look at the top of my blog — it’s one of my three core focuses.) Nonprofits that take a strategic approach have generated valuable results — whether it’s increased awareness, advocacy, donations, volunteers or event participation. But, the concept of social good isn’t limited to the nonprofit sector. Social media also helps communities mobilize and rally around important causes, and businesses can use social media to share their “good corporate citizen” activities.

Last week, I had the chance to speak to a group of small business owners and government officials about this very topic. If you’re interested in social media for social good, I hope you find these slides helpful. The presentation briefly reviews some stats and then jumps into four case studies (three of which are my own clients/projects) looking at different ways online communication fosters social good.

Tonight’s the big night! Join us for the first-ever Chatmixer — a convergence of 18 PR, social media and marketing and small business chats. As Deirdre Breakenridge noted in a recent blog post, this is such a great example of existing online communities coming together to build new relationships!

Participating is easy:

• Discussion starts at 8 p.m. EST
• Questions will come from @chat_mixer, using the #chatmixer hashtag
• Participate using your favorite Twitter tool (Tweetgrid, Tweetchat, Tweetdeck, etc) and monitoring tweets using the hashtag

#Chatmixer Format

We’ll begin at 8 p.m. with some informal introductions. (Hint: Be thinking about who you want to meet from another chat … you  might need a good “pick up line!” It is a mixer after all.) Then, it’s time for the questions, which anyone and everyone is welcome to answer. We’ve got a slate of questions already developed, but it’s not too late to suggest a topic. Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments.

During the party, we’ll be giving away a few prizes, including the opportunity to be a special guest on #pr20chat (the conversation that normally takes place on Tuesdays at 8).

I’m really looking forward to meeting some new people and learning more about the other industry chats. Hope you can join us for this amazing virtual networking party!

Thanks so much to Justin Goldsborough and Valerie Simon, my #chatmixer partners in crime. Planning this event has been more fun than I could have imagined!

Also, a big thanks to Mike Whaling of 30 Lines (and also my super-cool husband!) who designed the chatmixer logo.