What to Look For in a PR Rep

Posted on September 25, 2012 by krwatson

There is a plethora of PR companies to choose from, so how do you decide which rep will work the hardest for you? Here are some key characteristics to look for:

Someone with media connections. Many PR companies simply send out press releases through wire services and call it PR, but if you ask the majority of media professionals, you will find that most have never even heard of the most popular wire service sites. Real connections are a PR professional’s most valuable asset. Their name and respect among the media is what will get your name in the news.
Someone whose clients are frequently in the news. It may seem obvious, but note how often a company’s clients appear in the news. Is it sporadic or do they get their clients monthly coverage? What they’re doing for their current clients is a good indicator of how often you can expect similar coverage.
Someone who stays calm and takes action. PR professionals need to have the ability to stay calm and productive in stressful situations so that they can manage any PR crisis efficiently. If you know individual reps at a company, follow them on Twitter. Look for a rep who can turn any bad situation around, not a rep who tweets about how ruined his or her day is. When life gives you lemons, your PR rep should be able to get you an interview – or even an endorsement deal – about the benefits of lemonade.
Someone who offers guidance. Does the PR company offer media training and consultation? Without these services, you may not look or sound your best during interviews. It is your PR rep’s job to work with you on polishing your interview skills, yet this service is often overlooked. Find someone who takes the time to consult with you before every press opportunity.
Someone who puts their clients first. PR doesn’t end at five o’clock. You want a rep who will hop off a treadmill to take a call from a reporter at nine o’clock at night to secure coverage for you. You want a rep who goes above and beyond to think of creative ways to promote you and who puts their company and clients first. And finally, you want a rep who will tell you the truth instead of what you want to hear. Otherwise you will find out the hard way that that blouse really was too sheer under studio lights.

Tweet me your thoughts! @krwatson

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Social Media and Business: Customer Service In The Online World

Posted on September 21, 2012 by krwatson

By Guest Blogger Allison King:

In the summer of 2011, I became a social media intern for a local retailer I worked at called Aggieland Outfitters. The position opened up after our Facebook fanbase jumped from a couple hundred people to 20,000 due to an online competition. Customer service is the pride of our stores, and the company wanted to make sure we were successfully taking care of our new online fans. My duties included checking the Facebook page regularly, as well as finding interesting content to share with our fans. I must admit, when I first signed on, I thought I had hit the jackpot of summer jobs. I (along with my friends and family) could not believe I would be getting paid to sit around, browse online, and monitor a Facebook page. However, I quickly learned there was much more to successfully maintaining a social media presence. Here are some tips that I learned and wish I had known sooner to optimize customer service.

Social media is the frontline of customer service. We were able to cater to customers and develop a rapport before they even set foot in the store. Having consistent interactions with our fans gave us credibility and reliability, which eventually turned fans into customers.

Entertain them, and they will come. We made sure to limit our posts about merchandise because we did not want to swamp them with advertisements. Many times, that frustrates fans that believe companies are only out for their money. Instead, we worked very hard to provide entertaining content such as videos we shot or A&M related articles. Once they started to tune into our page out of their own will they were more willing to buy our products.

Be quick. Being the first to post about current events or breaking news is crucial. After the story has had time for others to see, a post you think is really interesting is now old news. It is important to be the first to send it out to fans for them to pass around with you as the original source. Once you’ve missed it, the moment has passed.

Include your fans. We often asked fans for their opinion on products or let them vote on certain designs. We also hosted a variety of events where we photographed and made videos of everyone who came. This brought back a lot of fans to the page so they could tag themselves in the photos or share a video they “starred” in with their friends. This assured fans that we truly we truly valued and were interested in them.

My time as a social media intern showed me the importance of using the online world to generate new customers. Our sales improved along with our social media presence. Though the sales were certainly important, our greatest success was learning how to utilize our customer service skills we valued so much from a new perspective. Using social media today in businesses can be a great tool for satisfying customers, and I hope you can take these tips to apply to your own social media outlets. Good luck!

Connect with Allison:
Email: amichellek@gmail.com
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/allison.king.31
Twitter: https://twitter.com/a_king2013
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/amichellek/

Want to be a Guest Blogger? Submit your entry to katierose@anchormd.com.

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Case Study: Dallas TNT

Posted on August 28, 2012 by krwatson

The Dallas remake on TNT wrapped a strong first season earlier this month. Let’s take a look at their innovative social media campaign:

Facebook Voice
Many television shows have standard Facebook pages through which they share actors news, quotes from the show, promo videos, et cetera. Dallas TNT has taken their Facebook page up a notch through the use of JR Ewing’s voice. Every Facebook post is written as though JR himself is posting, the wording remarkably in stride with his character’s distinct way of speaking. This gives the Facebook page a personal feel and better connects Facebook users to the show when it’s not on the air.

Facebook Timeline
We applaud Dallas TNT’s use of Facebook timeline. Few brand pages have really warmed up to the actual Timeline part of Timeline, but Dallas has added events from 1978 to the present, including marriages, divorces, births, and deaths. This helps play up the JR voice, as the Timeline reads like his own scrapbook. Each life event includes a photo and is written in the first person as the news relates to JR.

@Dallas_TNT Tweets
Dallas TNT encourages fans to tweet during the show using the hashtag #DallasTNT. Dallas often retweets their actors and fans, providing a constant stream of content. They also use their Twitter to promote their Rise to Power game and their characters’ Twitter handles.

Character Twitter Handles
Most notably, Dallas has created verified Twitter accounts for their characters to tweet in first person. Twitter handles include:

@RealJREwing
@TheOneJohnRoss
@TheChrisEwing
@TheBobbyEwing
@RealSueEllen
@TheAnnEwing
@TheElenaRamos
@RebeccaSutter

These accounts have between 5,000-18,000 followers each. The characters even tweet with each other in real-time during the show, occasionally arguing with one another and creating their own hashtags. Each Twitter page is impressively written in the appropriate voice for each character.

Rise to Power Interactive Game
This game is housed on the Dallas TNT website where fans declare their allegiance to characters each week. The game gives fans the opportunity to win prizes through Game Entries, which are obtained through tasks such as tweeting the character handles, posting about Dallas on Facebook, and checking in on Get Glue. This is a clever way for TNT to boost their social media presence and reward their fans for essentially advertising for them. After all, there’s no better way to reach a new audience than to have your existing audience voluntarily sing your praises.

We anxiously await what social media campaign is in the works for season two.

@krwatson

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How Disney Provides Consistently Stellar Customer Service

Posted on August 3, 2012 by krwatson

By Guest Blogger Stephen Blandino. Follow him, like him. Blog first posted here.

In a previous post, I shared my family’s unbelievable experience with Disney Customer Service. You can read about our experience right here. So how does Disney create stellar service?

I recently read Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service by the Disney Institute. The book provides some great insight into the practical systems that drive uncommon service. Here’s a quick overview of the three ingredients that drive Disney’s service:

The Service Theme: Disney begins with a “Service Theme” which defines and communicates the purpose of the company and creates its public image. Disney’s Service Theme is: “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.” In essence, a service theme declares the company’s mission and how and for whom that mission is accomplished. Your service theme “acts as a promise to your customers and a purpose for your employees.”

The Service Standards: Service standards, or service values, are the “how” of the service theme. They are the “operational criteria” that make the consistent delivery of the service theme possible. Disney has four service standards:

Safety: Providing for the welfare and peace of mind of guests.
Courtesy: Treating every guest as a VIP–a very important, and very individual person.
Show: Seamless and exceptional entertainment for guests.
Efficiency: Smooth operations of the theme parks and resorts.

The Delivery Systems: You can have a service theme and understand your service standards, but without the right delivery systems, none of it will come together. Disney uses three delivery systems to provide safety, courtesy, show, and efficiency:

Cast: This is Disney-speak for “employees.”
Setting: Setting is described as, “The environment in which service is delivered to customers, all of the objects within that environment, and the procedures used to enhance and maintain the service environment and objects. More simply, setting is the stage on which business is conducted.”
Process: Processes are “a series of actions, changes, or functions that are strung together to produce a result.” Processes include things like guest flow, communication, and service attention.

So how does this entire customer service system work together? The Service Theme is like true north. Again, it provides the promise for guests and the purpose for employees. To ensure the Service Theme is being accomplished, the Service Standards and Delivery Systems are incorporated into an Integration Matrix. In other words:

How does the CAST deliver Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency?
How does the SETTING deliver Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency?
How do the PROCESSES deliver Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency?

Below is an example of the Integration Matrix used with Disney Vacation Club. Across the top are the delivery systems (Cast, Setting, and Process) and along the left side are the service standards (Safety, Courtesy, Show, and Efficiency):

Each part of Walt Disney World has an integration matrix that shows how service standards are delivered by the cast, setting, and processes. If you want to learn more, check out Be Our Guest or the Disney Institute.

Question: What is missing in your organization–Service Theme, Service Standards, or Delivery Systems? How can you improve each one?

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Extraordinary Events & Design on CW’s Eye Opener

Posted on July 26, 2012 by krwatson

Our client, Julie Eastman (owner of Extraordinary Events & Design), was featured on CW’s national morning show, Eye Opener, this morning. We had a blast filming with host Danielle Vollmar and loved how the segment came together. Julie never disappoints on camera, benefitting from our media training and consultation PR services.

Watch the feature here:

Here are a couple of snapshots of the final room:

: Julie added throw pillows, a larger lamp to anchor the corner, coffee table books & candles, and simple DIY artwork over the couch: fabric over cork board!

: Julie decluttered, rearranged, added a throw rug, pillows, art, candles, and books in the living room. For a simple dining room centerpiece, she spray painted vases, grouping them together over a mirror atop a scarf.

Don’t forget to “like” and follow Julie!

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The Importance of Pinterest

Posted on July 19, 2012 by krwatson

The viral nature of Pinterest is what makes the social networking platform so important. If you have visuals for your company, you should be pinning. The food, hospitality, and travel industries are particularly popular on Pinterest. Not in those industries? Not a problem! Pinterest can still be a great way to showcase and organize company photos.

Take Anchor’s Pinterest page, for example. Different pinboards have different purposes. We always include attractive photos with press releases, making it easy to pin press releases from our website to the Our News pinboard. Our Public Relations, Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations boards largely house relevant industry articles that we found interesting and/or beneficial enough to share with our followers. Our In The Workplace board is the perfect place to keep business tips, info graphics, and amusing memes.

One of our favorite Pinterest features is the ability to pin videos. We have a board dedicated to our Anchor Chat web series in addition to the video pins on the Our Office board. We also use Pinterest to showcase our design work, blogs, office, and media coverage. Finally, we pin photos of The Anchor Team so that followers can get to know us and put names to faces.

Having an active Pinterest page will not only provide a hub of company photos and news, it will help you gain rapid exposure thanks to the viral way users share content. Repinning is the bread and butter of Pinterest. The beauty of repinning is that the source always remains the same. No matter how many times a photo has been repinned, every subsequent user who clicks on the photo will still be directed to the original source: your website.

A few of our favorite Pinners:
Sean Knight Custom Homes
PR News
Visit Fort Worth
Extraordinary Events & Design
TCU Career Services
Chobani

Be creative with your Pinterest page, but stay relevant to your industry.

- @krwatson

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What Captain Jack Sparrow Can Teach Us About Public Relations

Posted on June 22, 2012 by krwatson

“The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can’t do.” – Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Jack wasn’t referring to Public Relations, but this idea easily applies. I recently spoke with a Career Services professional at a local university who was surprised that I do not require applicants in my department to have a related degree.

Why? I have a Bachelor of Arts in German, not Ad / PR. From what I have learned, most universities teach press release templates and that’s about it. They don’t stress the importance of being responsive, creative, helpful, and a good writer. In my opinion, personality beats out experience every day of the week. If I interviewed Applicant A, who has a degree in Public Relations but isn’t personable or a good writer, and Applicant B, a Theatre major with a sparkly personality who happens to be a great writer, Applicant B would get the job, hands down.

We are seeking driven people who understand our brand and have the vision to take Anchor far. Experience and a portfolio certainly won’t hurt, but it’s not the only thing that matters to us. We recognize that spark, that something special in individuals that makes them outstanding creatives. It doesn’t matter what you have done. It matters what you can do. So the question is: What can you do?

Follow me on Twitter! @krwatson

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Case Study: Fort Worth Opera Uses Social Media to Find Younger Crowd

Posted on May 24, 2012 by krwatson

Fans of the Fort Worth Opera are engaged daily with opera news, performance photos, and event invitations on Facebook and Twitter, but what really sets the Fort Worth Opera apart is not how they’re bringing opera to social media: it’s how they’re bringing social media to the opera.

Fort Worth Opera has “Opera Shots” and other promotional events sprinkled throughout the year to build excitement for the month-long opera festival. This year, Fort Worth Opera invited social media enthusiasts as VIPs to these events. The social media VIPs were selected based on their interest in opera, Fort Worth, entertainment, or combination of the three, who are active on Twitter and Facebook. Fort Worth Opera has created specific hashtags around each event in addition to encouraging the more generic #opera hashtag.

With campaign posters reading “TAP THAT”, it’s no surprise that Fort Worth Opera is targeting a younger audience. What’s noteworthy is their execution. Fort Worth Opera is hosting a social media viewing of Lysistrata, a smart choice to appeal to a younger crowd since the show is primarily about sex, tonight (May 24, 2012) at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth. They are encouraging guests to not only tweet live with the hashtag #FWOFest12, but also to take and share photos of the performance, a radical movement that other theaters struggle with. By bringing social media to the opera, Fort Worth Opera ensures that their guests will promote opera on social media, creating buzz around the younger, social media-savvy crowd to introduce them to a type of entertainment they might not yet appreciate.

Well played, Fort Worth Opera, well played.

Follow Anchor’s Tweets (@anchormd) tonight on Twitter for the scoop on #Lysistrata!
“Like” Fort Worth Opera on Facebook & follow @FortWorthOpera on Twitter!

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Separate But Equal Social Media

Posted on May 10, 2012 by krwatson

How often have you seen “http://on.fb.me/xyz” on a Tweet? Ever recall seeing a hashtag on a Facebook status? What about an @ symbol followed by a Twitter handle in your newsfeed? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ve experienced a trend born out of social media software that allows users to simultaneously post the same post on multiple platforms. Convenient? Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

It’s smart to encourage YouTube subscribers to follow you on Twitter and to suggest your LinkedIn page to your Facebook fans, but avoid using social media software to schedule one post that will appear on all of your pages. Take the time to compose a similar but appropriate posts tailored for each social media platform. For example:

Twitter: Happy National #Tourism Week, @FortWorth! Retweet if you love this city. #FortWorth.
Facebook: Happy National Tourism Week, <link to page>Fort Worth! “Like” this status if you love this city.
Google+: Happy National Tourism Week, +Fort Worth! +1 this post if you love this city. LinkedIn: Happy National Tourism Week to the city of Fort Worth. We are proud to work in this city.

Linking accounts admittedly saves time, but is the time saved worth ignoring the social etiquette of the individual platforms? Repeat after me: Treat each social media platform as its own entity. It’s disruptive to force Twitter followers to go to your Facebook page to finish reading a tweet. Imagine if you were on the phone with a friend and in the middle of a great story, they told you, “Check your texts for the ending,” and then hung up. Would you be happy with your friend?

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How To Get a Job At Anchor

Posted on April 24, 2012 by krwatson

We’re currently searching for two PR & Social Media interns. After reading an abundance of resumes and cover letters, we’ve decided to share some tips on how to land the job:

1. “LIke” and Follow Us.

We notice. We check. We are more interested to interview candidates who have already been following and supporting our company. This also shows that candidates are up-to-date on Anchor news. This is especially important for potential Social Media team members, as they need to familiarize themselves with the tone of our brand. (Note: It’s also a good idea to keep your profile picture clean.)

@AnchorMD

2. Use Correct Grammar in Your Cover Letter. Seriously.

It never ceases to amaze us how often this point is ignored. Be sure to use correct punctuation and capitalization. We need to be able to trust our team members with client pages and to do that, we must be able to trust that you are a proficient writer.

3. Connect With Us.

We post about Social Media Club events as well as Fort Worth events, giving local followers plenty of opportunities to network with the Anchor team. Come to events and introduce yourself. We love meeting new people!

4. Be Professional, But Show Your Personality.

We have an upbeat, fun office atmosphere and we plan to keep it that way. Talking negatively about your past employer – or about anything – won’t impress us. We look for creative, positive people who will enhance our work environment. However, we still expect a certain amount of professionalism.

5. Tell Us Why You Want to Work For Anchor.

You’d be surprised how many insert-company-name-here cover letters we receive. The cover letters that stand out are the ones that demonstrate someone’s familiarity with our company. Cover letters should show why the candidate wants to work for Anchor in particular as opposed to admitting they have applied for numerous positions at other companies. Know us, know our brand, tell us how you can contribute, and we just might want to make you part of our team.

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