New Year’s Resolutions for PR? Or, Time to Reinvent Your Media Strategy?

The odometer on the old Gregorian calendar turned over again.

Salutations and Warm Greetings for the New Year.

What does 2011 offer people and organizations looking for media coverage? Whoa, slow down. What are your resolutions for the new season? Better yet, is making any resolution even a good idea when so many things on the media front are in flux?

There are many crystal balls aglow this time of the new year and most are flickering, because as we all know, the horses at the track will run the race they run. Winners and losers will emerge and few will foretell the real outcome. That said, I turn your attention to David Carr, the man behind the curtain at The New York Times who writes the weekly Media Equation column for the Old Gray Mare of journalism.

The Internet: Destroyer of Kingdoms, Creator of Empires

I have been searching for a suitable first blog for this third day of 2011 and I did not really need to search far. It was, as it were, in my own backyard. Mr. Carr is a former Minneapolis editor, writer, reporter and olde friend, with whom — Name-Dropping Disclosure — I had the endearing privilege and engaging survival skills to work with at a weekly paper here in the Twin Cities back in the ‘80s, the good/bad old days. This was well before the tech wonks in the military saw fit to make the technology transfer to the private sector of this mega-monster, The Internet, destroyer of kingdoms, creator of empires.

The Great Mashup of 2011

David’s piece — linked here — http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/business/media/03carr.html?_r=2&src=dayp to make your life easier, at least this early in the year, since it is surely to become more complicated later — is a must-read. And re-read. We will return to its messages and meaning in future blogs as various media industries strive to deal with the chaos and find a discernable path out of the digital wilderness. And with any wit, luck or fortitude, we may all learn some new ways of relating publically to our constituents, target markets, media contacts, etc.

What do you think 2011 holds for media and PR? Share your brightest — or least flickering ideas with this blog — and win valuable prizes.

Happy New Year.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Public and Media Relations.

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Martin Keller runs Media Savant Communications Co., a Public Relations and Media Communications consulting company based in the Twin Cities. Keller has helped move client stories to media that includes The New York Times, Larry King, The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, plus many other magazines, newspapers, trade journals and other media outlets. Contact him at kelmart@aol.com, or 612-729-8585

January 3, 2011February 21, 2023

Questions to Avoid Crisis

Questions and ideas concept on a plain background

Asking a few questions now can prevent crises later

One of the very best ways to prevent crises is to avoid them altogether. While obviously this isn’t always possible, there are steps you can take to shift the odds in your favor. In a recent blog post, Barry Hurd, President of 123 Social Media, gave a list of 15 questions organizations should ask of themselves. Some examples:

Who is responsible for monitoring the web for early signs of a crisis?

If someone doesn’t have an official responsibility to monitor for signs of problems (and opportunities) – you will be doomed to a very jaded moment of finger pointing when the executive team all shrugs and says “I thought you were handling it…”

Is your brand and mission statement integrated into a crisis plan?

In the digital world of reputation management and crisis control, responding quickly and transparently has huge benefits.

The simplest way to enable your team to act is to give them a direct brand and mission statement. By integrating this into the first step of your crisis plan, any employee in your organization should be able to ask a basic YES / NO question of “Do my actions support our brand and mission statement?”

This is critical for allowing an organization to have a consistent message at all levels.

How have you enabled your fans to support you?

Social media has some amazing benefits that extend outside of your immediate employees and business relationships. You have access to several different layers of social networks that can be activated to help you out.

Friends and Family – do a survey of your immediate relationships and find out what influential connections exist within your friends and family network. These users/decision makers/influencers can radically alter the way your business is viewed online (and in the real world.) While you may be planning a reputation management strategy for a crisis, this list is also a very valuable asset to be leveraged during good times (new product launches, special announcements, brand studies, etc.)
Happy clients and brand evangelists – these individuals may have no real reason to do something for you… except for the fact that they like your business, what you do, or who you are. This layer of fans has numerous advantages when dealing with the ‘digital mob’ that can arise during an online crisis. Understanding how to communicate correct information to this group quickly and effectively allows them to distribute it.

Barry’s list is a solid start, but don’t be satisfied stopping there. Every business holds its own risks – remember to include specific planning to counter those found in your niche. At my firm, we call that process a vulnerability audit, and if you’d like to see some sample questions from such an audit, email jonathan@bernsteincrisismanagement.com.

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For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
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[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. , an international crisis management consultancy, and author of Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training.]

January 2, 2011January 26, 2022

20 Great Ways to Engage and Involve Your Audience

Not long ago I worked with an energetic, creative group who, while focusing on presentation skills, wondered how to best engage their audiences. I asked them what engagement strategies they appreciated when they were in the audience. They had plenty of ideas about engagement techniques that I think any speaker could benefit from. These are relatively simple, and I think most of them are pretty “foolproof” as long as you approach your audience with confidence and curiosity.

As you read the list, take note of which ideas appeal to you. Which ones have you tried? What is one new idea that you might want to try? I would love to hear your ideas so we can add to the list, and also your results, as you involve and engage your listeners.

Plan an interactive opening using questions, asking for a show of hands, etc.
Ask participants to introduce themselves
Ask participants to write down their burning questions before you begin
Do a paper or online survey prior to meeting to engage them in thinking before they arrive
Focus on benefits to the audience, asking them to confirm the benefits that are important to them
Ask questions of the audience during the presentation
Welcome humor that happens (but avoid jokes or forced humor)
Enliven your slides with pictures you have taken of people, product, or locations (a great suggestion was using pictures of your team when presenting to customers)
Insert short video clips to hear from clients, experts, or leaders
Create a “Round Robin” discussion to hear from everyone, especially when brainstorming or seeking opinions
Ask listeners to discuss concerns or topics with one another or at tables
Tell a story to illustrate your points
Format your presentation like a story with a problem and solution
Ask listeners to guess certain facts or data or leave blanks on your slides and ask them to fill in the missing words
Set up a demonstration that audience members participate in
Ask for volunteers to write on a flip chart, track the time, or record action items
Give a quiz or a test, either at the beginning or end
Provide practice or application opportunities
Engage them physically by asking them to stand, raise hands, clap, etc.
Use slides only as a backup; the audience and you come before the slides

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Gail Zack Anderson has nearly 20 years experience in training and coaching. She provides individual presentation coaching, and leads effective presentation workshops and effective trainer workshops. See her website and LinkedIn profile. Contact her via email.

January 2, 2011September 30, 2022

Coaching Tool – Reflections and Intentions

A-man-thinking-of-how-to-work-through-a-maze

An effective way to start out the 2011 New Year is to Reflect on 2010 and set Intentions for 2011. I created this easy, simple worksheet for my coaching clients to capture their “Reflections” and “Intentions” as they embrace the New Year ahead. Try it and let me know what you think.

Reflections of 2010

What are my wins and successes? What did I learn from these?
What are my disappointments? What did I learn from these?
Who do I wish to thank?

Intentions for 2011

What do I intend to accomplish? What are my 3 most important priorities?
What will I start doing?
What will I stop doing?
What will I continue to do?
Who will be on my team?

I suggest reviewing your Intentions at least weekly so that you stay on track with what is important to you. Recognize that what you think about expands – so set strategy, and keep focused to get the results that you intend.

All my best to you and your loved ones for a happy, healthy and successful year ahead!

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

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Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark entrepreneurial business leaders to set strategy, take action, and get results. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

January 2, 2011May 12, 2022

Training Using Life Simulations

Group-of-people-seated-on-the-front-row-of-a-training-session

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing Naomi Karten‘s book on Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals and found it an excellent resource, not only for its intended audience but for others who may be giving technical presentations such as trainers. Naomi Karten, the author of several books, including Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals: Achieving Excellence and Changing How You Manage and Communicate Change: Focusing on the Human Side of Change, is my guest blogger today. You’ll appreciate her insight and guidance on facilitating learning through mimicking real life simulations in the classroom.

To Facilitate Real Learning, Use Experiential Training

by Naomi Karten

No doubt, you’ve attended training sessions in which the instructor reads from bullet-point-laden slides to students seated in rows, like second graders. For some topics, this passive approach to training is appropriate. But for helping people develop critical organizational skills such as communicating effectively, building relationships, and managing change, nothing beats experiential training.

Experiential training revolves around the use of simulations—activities designed to mimic real-life situations. In participating in these activities, students learn about themselves and others, and because they are fully engaged rather than passive listeners, what they learn tends to have staying power.

Here’s an example of a simple simulation that I’ve used dozens of times in my presentations on managing change. After introducing the topic and offering some initial comments, I ask everyone to gather their belongings and move to a seat that’s at least two seats away from their present seat.

When people get settled, I ask for their reactions to being asked to move. Keep in mind that these are people who lead (and experience) large-scale organizational or technological change. Surely, something as simple as changing their seats would be a minor matter. Or would it?

Here are some typical responses:

I didn’t want to move. I liked where I was.

It seemed like a fun thing to do.

I had the perfect seat and I wanted to stay there.

My seat had a bad leg. I was glad to move.

It seemed silly.

I resented having to change where I was.

I didn’t understand the purpose, but it was fine.

I got here early to get the best seat and you made me move.

I was thinking of refusing to move, but finally I went along.

The presence of so many different reactions, from resentment and anger to eagerness and curiosity, is an eye-opener for those who assume everyone else must have had the same reaction they did. This range of reactions beautifully sets the stage for my information on how people experience change and what that means for change leaders.

About a half-hour further into the presentation, I ask people how they are now with their new seats. The woman who said she had the perfect seat and wanted to stay there admitted that her new seat was just fine. Others voice similar comments; though they may not have been eager to move, they adjusted to their new location. Their realization of the change process they just experienced enables them to join me in identifying guidelines for reducing the duration and intensity of the turbulence associated with change.

This experiential approach invariably helps people gain insights both into how they themselves respond to change and how they can better manage change in their own organizations. In addition, it generates some fascinating discussion. It’s full of learning for those present including, I’m happy to say, the presenter.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

Naomi Karten (www.nkarten.com) is the author of several books, including Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals: Achieving Excellence and Changing How You Manage and Communicate Change: Focusing on the Human Side of Change. Contact her at naomi@nkarten.com.

January 2, 2011March 26, 2023

Partners And Competitors In The Non-Profit Sector

Non profit written on a white background close to a note

When I first started out in the non-profit sector, a funder told me that there was tension in the non-profit sector that was important to ensure that organizations changed and evolved and continued to evolve with their communities. I didn’t get it then, but now I do.

That tension is called competition and it goes to the very roots inside non-profit organizations. Staff, managers, agencies and non-profit organizations compete with each other. Staff compete to be the best program within the organization, managers compete to show the most positive change in their staff and programming, other agencies compete to get their share of the recognition when things are happening in a community (no matter whether they had anything to do with it or not) and non-profit organizations compete with each other for funding dollars. This ever changing competition is what drives non-profits to be the best they can be, but it can also be a double edged sword, in that this is what can also destroy them.

I compare being in non-profit to being on a diet. When you are on a diet, despite wanting to lose weight, you must eat to achieve weight loss. In the non-profit sector, while you must compete with other non-profits for funding and recognition, you must also work with them to best serve the community at large. This too creates tension and sometimes results in organizations that are not necessarily fond of each other needing to work together in both of their best interests.

I have even seen government intentionally create this tension, by making organizations that have nothing more in common than both trying to get funding from the government, be forced into working with other non-profits because the government made it a condition of their funding. Why would government do this you may ask? Well there are limited government funds. So by throwing these two non-profits into the same pool to swim together, one of two things can happen. First, the two organizations may actually succeed at working together successfully. Or, two, they could actually have a relationship break down between themselves and then the government would not have to provide either of them with funding. Either way, it’s a win win situation for government, because they aren’t the bad guys for having refused funding to anyone and the end result if negative is then seen as the making of the two organizations involved. Either way, the government comes out smelling like roses and lives to fight another election.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Nonprofit Capacity Building.

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By Ingrid Zacharias, Managing Director, Envisioning the Future International, Email: izacharias@envisioningthefutureintl.ca , Website: http://envisioningthefutureintl.ca/