Be Careful Who You Friend

Billy Jo Bob has sent you a friend request…will you accept?

 Ah, Facebook. 

Within a matter of days it may make you feel like one of the most “popular” people  on the planet as your friend count climbs by the minute.  You will experience elation as you reconnect with friends you haven’t seen in decades and always wondered “what ever happened to Jimmy from first grade?” It’s like the 10- 20- or 30-year class reunion you never went to…all in the privacy of your home. 

Ever wondered what your co-workers do in their spare time?   Guess what? Facebook puts you in the “inner circle” of the people they share their most intimate thoughts, ideas and pictures with….and they may never know you peeked!  In fact, unless you regularly comment on their page, they may forget you’re one of their 789 Facebook friends.

Ever wonder who’s looking at your photos, posts, or quiz results?  Ever wonder about the real motivation behind someone’s friend request?    It’s easy not to think about such things when you’re in the middle of a post…until you happen to glance over and see just how ridiculously high the number of your “Facebook friends” has become.  ”Where did all these people come from?”   It’s in those moments you realize that a little more caution about those posts, photos, comments, games and quizzes might be wise – don’t forget, they can see what time you were playing “Mafia Wars” or “Bejeweled.”  And then there’s this…how do you know for certainty that any of those people you’ve not seen in 20 years are mentally unstable?  You may have known them well way back when, but what’s happened since then?

Time to pare down?  Well that’s not so simple either.

If you’ve ever realized you got “unfriended” as one of your “friends” pared down their list of groupies, you know the shock value of “What happened?!”   You wonder if it’s something you said – or didn’t – or if they just plain don’t like you anymore.  Probably, it’s none of the above.  Which leads me to something my mother used to always tell me as a child, that I think today carries a great deal of relevance…. “Be careful who you your friends are!”

Recently, I have had a significant number of people ask me “what to do” about their Facebook friends!  When they started out on Facebook, they sent friend requests and accepted friend requests like it was going out of style.  The only qualifiers were:  “Sure, I know who they are,” “It would be interesting to know more about them,” or ”We have 2 friends in common, they have to be alright…” 

Friending that person today might seem like a good idea, but is it really?  There ARE other options! And you DON’Thave to accept! For example, if you’re reconnecting with high school buddies, maybe the best place to leave your re-found friendship for a while is at the reunion group page.  And co-workers?  Hmmmm…  What about the boss you just adore? Some things are just better left alone. And if you refuse the friend request, tell the person why: “Hi Susan, thank you for the friend request.  It is sure nice to reconnect with you.  I have decided however to keep my Facebook page private to just my family and closest friends.  I joined the AHS reunion page though – would love to continue our conversation through Facebook mail or on the reunion page….”

So, what do you think?  Is it time for some ground rules? 

1. HOW    Decide HOW you want to use Facebook.  Is it for networking? Reconnecting with people?  Sharing photos, and personal life experiences?  

2. WHO     Once you’ve decided HOW you want to use it, you need to put parameters around WHO you allow into your personal space – aka your Facebook page.  If you are using it strictly for networking, what are your criteria? Mutual friends, people you know, business acquaintances, etc.  If you are using it to share life, you need to be more careful about those ground rules – and stick to them… Say “no” to work related friends and anyone you don’t know well. 

3. WHAT     The how and the who will determine what you post.  Did you know that every time you post, you are branding yourself?  You are creating a distinguishable mark that someone may remember about you – favorably or unfavorably.  THINK about what you are posting and WHO is listening!  If you have 1,000 friends from all walks of life, and gathered them all in a room, would you grab a microphone and say what you are posting?  Probably not.  If you are using your FB page strictly for professional networking posts, don’t post anything you wouldn’t want quoted in the paper, and by all means DO NOT POST anything offensive or polarizing!  Sure, an occasional post about the stunning sunrise, or a great little place you tried for dinner are appropriate as you share some life experiences, however, your business colleagues don’t need to know the intimate details of your date last night, neighborhood gossip or all the gory details of your day.  You may also want to be more guarded as to photos you post of your family and children – you never know who’s looking!  If you are friending only people you trust deeply, you have a great deal more freedom to post at will. 

Breaking up is hard to do…

So, what to do with the “unfriending” quandary?  It’s never easy, but if you DO decide to “unfriend” anyone on Facebook, be prepared to explain!  True, some people may never notice – or care – but others will feel jilted or crushed that they weren’t “good enough” to be your friend and their imaginations will run wild. Be prepared to explain to a “former Facebook friend” why they no longer have access to your page.  I’ve found that people generally are understanding if you explain that your large friend base became too difficult to manage (honestly, who can keep up with 1,000 friends every day – let alone 100!), so you decided to scale it back.

In the end, treat people as you would want to be treated.  It goes a LONG way!

-Jeannette

Style Rant!

Style.

Everyone has their own “style” of dressing, talking, living and, yes, writing.  When you are working in journalism – whether on the reporting or pitching side of the equation – there are very strict style guidelines your writing must follow.  It’s called Associated Press (AP) Style. 

The reason is for the guidelines is simple.  AP Style employs solid grammar and has a sole focus of keeping written communication consistent and understandable to the reader. 

Think about how confusing it would be to read a newspaper or magazine where each story had a different use of punctuation, abbreviations and tone. In addition the entire publication would appear extremely sloppy. With AP Style, the reader knows what to expect…and editors often get an ear-full when readers find those sloppy grammatical errors!

Recently, I was asked by a client to consider moving all punctuation outside of the quotation marks in our media materials.  The reason for the request was the individual’s personal crusade to change the way we use quotations because he personally finds punctuation inside of them confusing.  

Since I’ve seen a growing number of people making this punctuation move, I wondered if style and grammatical rules on quotations had changed.  I consulted my AP Style guide.  Here’s what it says:

  Quotation marks (“ ”)

• Periods and commas always go within quotation marks. (emphasis mine)

• Dashes, semicolons, question marks and exclamation points go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted material. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

I stood my ground on the punctuation, with the full backing of the style guide behind me.  The placement of a small punctuation mark may not seem like that big of a deal to you, there truly are multiple reasons why it’s very important.  It comes down to the number one reason we have success in our jobs as PR practitioners: RELATIONSHIPS.

When you are building relationships with reporters and editors, you have to speak their language. Their language: AP Style.  When you send a release, you make their life much easier when you take the time to ensure the writing aligns with their style guidelines. When you make their life easier, you’ve just made a friend.

I’ve often had news releases printed word-for-word.  Therefore, I know the importance of a properly written document that can fit into the fabric of the news and look like it’s been written by a staffer.

Pay attention to style and build healthy relationships for the future!

For more information on AP Style, you can buy a copy of the book at any bookstore, or purchase an online subscription to AP where you also have access to “Ask the Editor” for confusing style situations. You can also follow them at @APStylebook on Twitter.

-Jeannette

The Changing Landscape of Public Relations

Last week, I had the pleasure and honor of visiting with several local colleagues about how our profession is changing.  Michael Boss, who writes a blog for the Idaho Business Review took the opportunity to record the conversation and then blogged about it. 

I am sharing the link with you below as I thought you might be interested in what my colleagues and I had to say about the the current state of the public relations industry as well as its future.

Enjoy Michael’s blog, “How many PR people does it take to issue a press release”!

Use Google News Alerts to Stay Afloat!

Most of us have a love/hate relationship with the internet. On one hand, is there any way you could ever live without your computer these days? I know I couldn’t! On the other hand, you can get sucked in to surfing the net for hours. How long have you spent looking up topics that interest you, or staying current on your industry’s trends, or even checking to see if your business is being talked about? If you’ve never heard of, or used Google alerts, now is a good time to learn!

A basic news alert can be filled out at www.google.com/alerts, but there are tricks you can use to fine tune your search to a specific city or state, or even a specific news source. To do that just go to Google News advanced search, type in your specifications, click “Google search” and then copy/paste the search terms into your Google news alert form.

Business owners will benefit from searching beyond traditional media sources.  Monitoring “new media” a.k.a. blogs and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter could be the life preserver that keeps your business afloat.  If someone comments about a bad (or good) experience with your business, this service will find it. Google news alerts can scan blogs for your business’ name, giving you the chance to react any time you are mentioned.  If you want a good example of why monitoring social media is important just Google “Motrin moms ad” and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about! Or check out these links for the story!

 

 

Here’s a recap of the entire story:

  

Newspapers: More American than Apple Pie

“Extra! Extra!  Read all about it!”

It’s a phrase that immediately conjures up in my mind a picture of a little boy, maybe 11 or 12 years old…circa late 1800s or early 1900s…standing on the street corner, trying to earn a penny.

That scene is long gone and remembered only with pictures and words in the history books. But I wonder if (and probably more accurately, how soon) a similar fate lies in wait for that Norman Rockwell picture-perfect moment many of us experience each morning as we read the paper with a cup of coffee.

Is the era of the newspaper disappearing completely?  It certainly seems so. Just this morning, I read of McClatchy’s plans to cut yet another 1600 jobs at wonderful papers such as (among others) The Idaho Statesman, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star. I have emotional ties to all three of these.

No doubt you’ve seen the countless stories as well.   Here are a few a quick Google search pulled up for me:  San Francisco Chronicle, Rocky Mountain News (watch the video documentary), multiple Philadephia area newspapers, Bellingham Herald,  Sacramento Bee… and the list goes on and on and on.

Maybe you don’t subscribe to a paper – or even read the one laying on the table at the coffee shop.  Maybe you’re thinking “I really don’t care.”  But you should. Did you know newspapering is more American than apple pie?

The first American newspaper appeared more than 300 years ago in Boston – in 1690.    It is a “patriotic” profession, and lest you want to argue that point with me consider this…it is protected by Article One of our constitution:   “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech or of the press…” Not Article 2, 3 or 4…Article ONE!

Newspapers were considered so important to our country’s founding fathers, that in 1787 Thomas Jefferson went as far to say: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Now, granted, they didn’t have television, radio or the Internet back then, but I suspect our founding fathers would have felt the same about those methods of communicating.  Regardless, the fact remains, newspapering, has a critically important place in the history of our country. 

Ironically, we are consuming more news than every before.  Yet, we seem to think we are entitled to freely receive it. But what happens when every newspaper in our country, like soldiers in a losing battle, falls?  One…by…one. 

And after them, what happens to our local television news stations, who are also struggling to make ends meet?  Where does the content come from for your beloved GoogleNews?  Who will keep a watch dog perspective on our public servants?  Who will hold our country accountable?

Citizen Journalists?  Perhaps, but we also run a serious risk of listening only to certain channels of information that align with our personal view points – leaving us in a dangerously precarious – and devisive position. 

We are losing countless talented and award-winning journalists at an an alarming rate.  One journalist friend of mine recently commented “I don’t know what I’ll do when I lose my job.”  It wasn’t IF – but WHEN.  There are no other newspaper jobs to take – because the are all disappearing.  One…by…one.  Sure, you can write a blog…but who will pay you for the content?

I don’t have the answer, but it’s clear that news agencies – if they hope to survive- will have to become more creative than ever before as their entire infrastructure shifts…ONLINE.  As my good friend and colleague Jeri Cartwright in Salt Lake City recently observed, they will have to become a newspaper, radio station, blog, podcaster and more.  And they’ll have to figure out how to do all this while containing costs and making money….somehow.  I just hope the rest of us will be bright enough to support their efforts as they figure it out because the cost to all of us is far too great.

-Jeannette

Counterfeiting Free Speech

I don’t know how many of you have followed the tragedy unfolding in Florida. If not, here’s a quick synopsis: A couple of NFL players and their friends went out on a fishing excursion about a week ago. When beautiful weather turned vicious, their 20 foot boat capsized and all were tossed into the sea. After two days of searching, one man was found suffering from hypothermia and clinging to the overturned boat.The Coast Guard has since called off the search, leaving loved ones and family members to continue the search on their own.

Marquis Cooper, an offensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders was the owner of the boat and is among the missing. I knew Marquis as a teenager. His father, Bruce (Coop, as we all call him) is one of the sports anchors at my old TV station in Phoenix. Coop is one of the all-around nicest guys you’ll ever meet. He is currently in Florida, desperately trying to keep volunteers and hired help searching for any signs of his son and his son’s friends.

The media has been all over this story. It’s made national and international news. But here’s where I get disgusted… If you go onto any of the websites of the newspapers in Florida and start reading the comments posted after the news reports; you’ll quickly learn that racism, ignorance and downright venom are all alive and well in the good ol’ USA. From website-posters questioning whether black people should be allowed to own boats because they don’t swim as well as white people to claims that there is only one survivor because the others weren’t smart enough to hang on to the boat. How ludicrous!

As a journalist, I’m all for the first amendment. Where I draw the line is the practice of allowing people to post anonymous comments on a newspaper or television’s website. All this does is foster vicious and malicious comments that few people would dare to post if they had to identify themselves. This is not truly free speech. Its counterfeit speech—hidden behind a cloak made up of cowards. C’mon Scripps, Belo, Gannett and all the other big media conglomerates— raise the bar, lead the way and cut the anonymous posting. What are we really protecting?

I’d love to hear what you think.

—Lonni

Torpedoed

In this day of Tivo and Instant Messaging, you have one chance to get it right – and that one chance can happen in a split second. The new “word of mouth” electronic communication tools like Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon create, capture and cement images in an instant. Every company needs a plan and every employee needs to be familiar with that plan. Without one, you run the risk of being torpedoed by one overlooked detail or by one slip of the tongue. And lest you think your reputation lies solely in the hands of your PR department, guess again. Every employee in your organization holds your reputation in their capable (or incapable) hands. Here’s a prime illustration. Click the link below and listen in as a Verizon customer tries (tries being the operative word) to get some answers on his cell phone bill.
After you get over your shock, you’ll realize how important it is to have EVERY person affiliated with your business; educated, primed, knowledgeable and articulate about every aspect of the job. Otherwise, your blunder may just end up on the World Wide Web for all to see negatively impacting your reputation and bottom line.

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/02/09

–Lonni

Tomorrow Can’t Wait

If you watched the news coverage regarding the Buffalo plane crash late enough into the evening, you may have experienced first hand how the methods news organizations use to gather news are evolving – FAST!

Some of the first video we had of the crash came to us through YouTube.com.  Then, scrambling for an eye witness, FOX News Channel anchor Julie Banderas went onto Twitter.com and found Keith Burtis - and called him up.  Burtis, a social media guru for BestBuy.com, agreed to the interview and was was thrust center-stage into the middle of the tragic story, sharing what he saw, felt, and knew about this small community.  Before the end of the phone interview, the national news organization asked him to see if he could Skype them so they could interview him via live computer video feed.

Amazing.

Back in the “good ol’ days” a national news organization relied on local news networks to deliver the video, photos, interviews, press conferences, and first person accounts of what had occurred in the early hours until they could get their own reporters and photographers/videographers there.  Bringing it down to a more micro-level, local news crews scrambled to try to find someone who has something relevant to say and is willing to be interviewed – often going door-to-door and making dozens of cold calls. 

The emerging new technology, or Social Media, is quickly changing all that, reducing the news gathering lag time by delivering solid resources and information in real time.  A few quick strokes on the key board, and you not only have a knowledgeable person willing to be interviewed, but video as well. 

People frequently say to me “I don’t get the value in Twitter, or Facebook, or <insert other social media site here>.”  I was among the greatest skeptics just 2 years ago and initially resisted jumping into the social media game.   Sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and others have now become an important part of my work day, and I’m convinced companies can not afford to operate without a presence on such sites any longer – at least if they want to stay relevant and be included in tomorrow’s conversation.

-Jeannette D.

PS – follow me on Twitter at jkduwe