Posts Tagged ‘Indianapolis’

Did the first 22 signs make you smile? Laugh? Sigh? Shake your head?

[PR Daily published a story this year from PR professional Lauren Fernandez on the 11 signs that someone works in public relations. (The story originally appeared on Fernandez’s blog.) The article unleashed a flood of comments that PR Daily compiled into a second story (“42 more signs you work in PR“).]

Here are the rest of the signs. (You know some of these – okay, MANY of these – describe you.)

23. You engage in weekly conversations with your clients that start with, “Why weren’t we included in this WSJ article?”

24. You’ve heard all the lines about sleep: “Sleep is overrated.” “You can sleep all you want when you die.” “Do you ever sleep?”

25. You start your day by digging out of client and competitor alerts and checking email, all before you’re out of bed.

26. You check HootSuite in the morning before you get out of bed just to monitor what has been said about your clients overnight.

27. Every Friday around 5:00 p.m. you think, “This could be crisis time!” (And sometimes even look forward to a good one.)

28. You know what time it is anywhere in the world and every country’s phone code, all without having to look at a reference guide.

29. You’re afraid to go more than 15 minutes (max) without checking Twitter/Facebook/news feeds to make sure you’re not missing anything.

30. You rely on to-do lists (yes, plural) to get you through your day, but often don’t get to cross anything off until 4 p.m. (after managing a few surprise crises).

31. You wake from a dream in the middle of the night, rolling over to grab the pen and paper you keep on your nightstand to jot it down so you won’t forget an idea for yet another crazy PR stunt. Work on the mind during the day and work on the mind while you sleep!

32. You can’t look at or listen to any form of media without thinking, “My client should be on/in that.”

33. My iPhone is my girlfriend. My MacBook Pro, my best friend.

34. You’re the only person groaning out loud when reading the paper on the bus. How were we not included?

35. You check your smartphone before brushing your teeth.

36. People have asked you if you sleep in your office and you’ve actually thought about where you’d put the sleeping bag … if it ever got to that.

37. Checking of smartphones and news becomes an everyday routine before bedtime and in the mornings.

38. You read/hear about a company’s crisis and instantly think, “I wonder who their AOR is.”

39. You have one copy of the AP Stylebook at work, one at home, one on your Kindle and the app on your phone.

40. At cocktail parties, you speak in quotable sound bites.

41. You never plan meetings on Fridays afternoons or make personal plans on Friday evenings. You know that “the call” is coming at 4:45 p.m., and everything will need to be dropped anyway.

42. You actually take surveys. It’s good client karma, right?

43. You think and speak in 140 characters or less.

44. You call taking any photo a “Photo-op.”

45. Post-it notes are your lifeblood.

46. You almost die if your BlackBerry is sent for servicing!

47. Your friends think you’re crazy for your undeniable attachment to your social networks.

48. Client’s products are decorations on your desk.

49. You eat every meal at the office and have a shelf dedicated to your favorite snacks, most of which include some kind of protein or snack bar.

50. You work out at 4:00 a.m.

51. You watch televised press conferences for fun and to steal really good talking points.

52. Your morning consists of simultaneously pitching different campaigns, for different clients, across different media markets, and often, in different languages.

53. Something really bad happens and you’re the first to announce, “We don’t have problems; we have opportunities.”

PR Daily published a story this year from PR professional Lauren Fernandez on the 11 signs that someone works in public relations. (The story originally appeared on Fernandez’s blog.) The article unleashed a flood of comments that PR Daily compiled into a second story (“42 more signs you work in PR“).

Here are the first 22 signs – How many can you relate to? (And don’t lie! )

1. Your day starts and ends with a cup of coffee.

2. You can power-walk in 5-inch heels with your laptop bag while checking your BlackBerry.

3. Inside jokes with your colleagues will get you through the day — especially the insanely stressful ones.

4. You constantly engage in “PR is dead” and “the press release doesn’t have a place in business” arguments.

5. You are so used to putting the client first that you usually forget to eat lunch.

6. It’s detrimental to your health and workday when you forget your headphones.

7. You can toggle among a PowerPoint presentation, a press release, Twitter strategy and PSA outlines — all in an hour.

8. You recite billing codes in your sleep.

9. You preface Happy Hour with: “Sorry, I need to keep my phone on the table. I have to be connected to email and phone just in case.”

10. You know more about AP style than Microsoft Office. Because of this, you’re a regular in the IT department.

11. You proudly put “PR pro” in your Twitter bio, knowing it’s the one place you don’t have to explain your job.

12. Your speed-dials connect to the CEO, CFO, CIO, CRO and Arby’s.

13. Your BlackBerry sleeps with you every night. Your better half does not.

14. You no longer count calories — just your re-tweets.

15. You start to rock in your chair when you can’t catch a look at your BlackBerry over dinner.

16. “Relax” time is in the shower when you always seem to come up with the best PR pitches.

17. After your coffee, you spend 20 minutes deleting Google Alerts of clients, competitors and everything in between.

18. Your home number is on your office voicemail “just in case a reporter calls,” and non-PR people regularly express surprise that you’d let it out. You don’t understand why they even think that.

19. The first thing you do when you start your day is “communications triage,” and it often begins at home.

20. Your client wants to be on Oprah. Alternately, you are beyond grateful that this is Oprah’s final season — so you never have to hear a client say they want to be on Oprah again.

21. EVERYTHING in your life — from doing the laundry to playing a round of golf — is recorded in your mind in 15-minute billable increments.

22. You set three alarms to rise at 4 a.m. to make the early morning in-studio segment.

Sound like you? Standby for the remainder of the list – there’s more to come!

Do I matter? Does what I do matter? These are questions that many people probably ask themselves every day, both on a personal and professional level. If you’re working in the world of public relations and marketing, though, you may have reason to doubt the validity of your work, due to phrases such as “the press release is dead” and “PR is dead” being tossed around.

But as Doug Flora says, nothing could be further from the truth. In this article, “10 reasons PR matters,” he lists the following reasons why the importance of effective communications has never been more pronounced than in today’s integrated media environment.

1. In the social universe, messaging is key.
It isn’t enough to engage on social media, or have lots of “likes” and followers. If an organization isn’t communicating its key messages, then the social media effort is a waste of time. That’s where the professional communicators come in.

2. Reputation is a C-level concern.
Reputation is top of mind, even at the executive level, and especially at the biggest companies. We’re even seeing chief reputation officers being appointed. Good reputation management is good PR.

3. Crisis is chronic.
Recent history has shown us how crucial effective crisis management is. And in today’s fast-paced media landscape, an ultra-quick response with finely-tuned messaging is a must.

4. Visibility is a both an art and a science.
The rise of social media and SEO metrics have convinced some that brand visibility is solely a matter of numbers. However, good positioning is also the product of craftsmanship. We can’t forget that the quality and targeting of the message is of paramount importance.

5. Marketing people are not necessarily social media geniuses.
It’s popular to say that social media management is the domain of marketing. But social media is about communities and engagement, and the goal is to achieve earned influence. While PR has some work to do when it comes to mastering social media, it is still the best equipped to leverage the social message.

6. The media is alive and kicking.
The scenery has changed, but the media remains the primary influencer of public opinion. And while PR people have had to grow and adapt to keep up with the media’s new modus operandi, they are still the pros at this.

7. It’s the economy, stupid.
Many organizations, especially smaller ones, are on tighter budgets and don’t have as much to spend as they might like on integrated marketing. PR is the most cost-effective way to communicate to a broad audience. It’s just a matter of convincing this to clients and prospects.

8. Content and context
From blog posts to bylines to webinars to tweets, good content builds the face of the organization. PR should steer that ship because communicators know when, why and how best to send the message. Providing the right context gives content the chance to really flourish.

9. Values make your brand.
Especially in the era of the Global Village, an organization’s values are of utmost important to the public and make up a bigger portion of its brand strength than ever.

10. There is, in fact, a ROI.
But don’t just slap a dollar value on media placements and call it a day. Part of the challenge of communicating ROI is convincing the C-level that PR builds a reservoir of goodwill and that public confidence in a brand is the measure of that goodwill. Quantifying public confidence can be accomplished through a combination of surveys, media tone analysis, traditional ad values and circulation numbers, market penetration, brand buzz, etc.

So, say it with me: “I matter. What I do matters. PR matters.”

Believe it or not, the 2012 Indianapolis Home Show is right around the corner!! Fischer Homes returns to the Home Show as the 2012 Centerpiece Home builder.

Designed and fully-constructed by the Fischer Homes team, the 2012 Centerpiece Home will be built entirely inside Exposition Hall at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Fischer Homes will be showcasing its Stanton floor plan as the Centerpiece Home with a new Craftsman-styled elevation. The home features a two-story gathering room and gourmet eat-in kitchen with a diamond bay window.

So, would you like to get an inside look at the Centerpiece Home — everything from pieces of furniture that will be used to fabrics and bedroom themes? Well, now you can! As a special treat, a new blog will allow consumers to follow Centerpiece Home designer, Joy, and her decisions regarding the interior of the Centerpiece Home as she makes them.

Click here for An Inside Look! And make sure to follow this blog and share with others in the weeks leading up to the 2012 Indianapolis Home Show!  

The Indianapolis Home Show opens Friday, Jan. 20, and continues through Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012.

I’ve lived in Indiana my entire life, and spent most of my time in the Indianapolis metro area and I’m proud to call it home. I see all kinds of lists based on all kinds of data that come out from time to time. These ranking lists can be “Top 10 …” – fill in the blank …”Best Places to Live, Best Places to Raise a Family, Worst Air Quality, etc. Somes times Indy makes these lists for good reason and sometimes for bad. The list I saw today is pretty bad!

America’s Emptiest Cities, 2011
Ouch!!! Indy is number two on this list for having the second highest rental and home vacany rates in the nation.

Brent Keller, group manager for the Indianapolis Home Show, is pleased to announce that Fischer Homes returns to the Home Show as the 2012 Centerpiece Home builder!

Designed and fully-constructed by the Fischer Homes team, the 2012 Centerpiece Home will be built entirely inside Exposition Hall at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Fischer Homes will be showcasing its Stanton floor plan as the Centerpiece Home with a new Craftsman-styled elevation. The home features a two-story gathering room and gourmet eat-in kitchen with a diamond bay window.

“We are so excited to be invited back to showcase at the Indianapolis Home Show. We are planning something really special this year with the home and merchandising,” said Brian Fannin, Director of Marketing for Fischer Homes. “The design elements will translate from the outside to inside the home. We believe it will be especially memorable. We hope to hear lots of ‘WOW’ as guests tour the home. We think ‘chic’ and ‘farmhouse’ will have fresh meanings after seeing this home.”

Since 1980, Fischer Homes has been building homes and delivering an exceptional customer experience in neighborhoods throughout Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. In 2009, Fischer Homes brought a fresh new look to Indianapolis with their designs and stylized exteriors. They are now building in more than 20 locations in Carmel, Geist, Fishers, Zionsville, Westfield, Noblesville, Avon, Center Grove and Greenwood. The company doubled its sales in 2011 and forecasts 100% growth again in 2012. All Indianapolis Fischer Home buyers have indicated they would refer a friend to Fischer Homes.

“Fischer Homes brought a fresh perspective to home building at last year’s Home Show with the Centerpiece Home’s unique features and special interactive opportunities,” Keller said. “We are excited to partner with Fischer Homes again for the 2012 Indianapolis Home Show, and we look forward to what this year’s Centerpiece Home will offer to our attendees.”

“Indianapolis has welcomed Fischer Homes to the city. Our success and customer satisfaction is a public trust that we want to maintain and build upon,” said Tim McMahon, Senior Vice President of Fischer Homes Indianapolis Division. “The Home Show is a wonderful opportunity for Indianapolis to learn about the incredible offerings that Fischer Homes brings to this market.”

The Indianapolis Home Show opens Friday, Jan. 20, and continues through Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Admission is $13 for adults, $3 for children ages 6 to 12 and free for children 5 and younger.

For more information, call 317-705-8719 or visit the Indianapolis Home Show website at http://www.indianapolishomeshow.com/.

I am blogging right now, so what more appropriate topic is there to blog about than … blogging?! I’m a big fan of the PR-Squared blog from Todd Defren @tdefren, and in his post, 6 Rants About Blogging & Sharing Practices, there are some definite points to take away.

If you have a blog, make sure each post is easy to share across MULTIPLE social outposts.

If you’ve made each blog post easy to share across multiple social outposts, make sure that each share is automagically assigning you credit, e.g., when a post is shared via Twitter, the (editable) post ought to include “via @username.” 

Defren says, “It’s shocking to me how often this is overlooked by bloggers. Don’t annoy your generous readers by forcing them to figure out how to give you credit for your own work! Besides, as much as you may want credit for the post, they want some karmic kickback too; they want you to notice their generosity. (I can tell you, as a blogger, that I tend to pay much more attention to people whom I recognize as consistent boosters of my work on Twitter, FB, etc.)”

NOTE the use of “via @username,” NOT “via (blog name).”  The author deserves credit and wants to know when/how content is shared, and this makes it easier for them to do so, plus helps their personal branding/credibility. It also tends to leave more character-spaces for the reader to add their own commentary. If you automagically add “(LONG POST TITLE) ǁ (BLOG NAME) ǁ (VIA @USERNAME)” you’ve killed your reader’s chance to praise you. You sucked all the oxygen out of their tweet. You’re making them work harder!

If you’ve made each blog post easy to share, and credit the author appropriately (and automagically), you must also account for multi-author blogs, which are increasingly prevalent. When a blog is authored by multiple writers, you should still ensure the credit goes to “@username” vs. “(blog name)” … The author of the post deserves the personal branding boost, as in any case anyone clicking the link will be brought to the blog.

If you’ve linked to another blogger’s work in your post, you should consider calling that out to them on Twitter (etc.) Many bloggers are interested/excited to learn that they’ve been cited, even though fewer of them check to see if that’s happening with the regularity of their early days. And (*ahem*) it nearly guarantees a RT.

Promote your own work. Share it on Twitter, on Facebook, on Google Plus. Think of this as “THE OUTPOST ECHO” — if your post is hanging out across multiple owned and third-party sites, it will be that much easier to discover by readers and search engines. Just don’t be obnoxious.

“These are basic and simple guidelines,” Defren says. “Yet I daresay I’d call this post a ‘rant’ because I still come across scads of blogs that bollox the works.”

Happy Blogging!

What is Google+? Sure, you’ve heard about it. You’ve read articles about it. But do you really understand it yet? I sure don’t. That’s why I really enjoyed reading this post from Mary C. Long and Melanie Trudeau at Jaffe PR.

According to Long and Trudeau, stop thinking of Google+ as just another social networking platform – it’s not. It’s the largest, most trafficked online search option out there, which now offers a powerful self-promotion platform that could potentially knock the socks off of your SEO strategy – assuming you have one (if you don’t, now would be a good time to start!).

They offer three key points to keep in mind:

• Google+ is connected to your Google profile.
• Your Google profile allows you to +1 items around the Web.
• Your +1s can be displayed on Google+.

Okay, now see if you understand the following from Long and Trudeau:

“Each +1 you make is a vote for that content, visible to others online and rumored to affect page rank. And even if it doesn’t affect page rank, it’s powerful word of mouth and free PR for that content. Each time you +1 a colleague’s blog post or the latest biz-dev piece from Mashable, it’s recorded for posterity. And when folks connected to you happen upon that page, they’ll see ‘Jane Public along with 25 others +1’d this link.’ Awesome. Great reciprocal PR potential there, right? You +1 me, I +1 you – as long as we’re both posting killer content (which we are, of course) we both benefit. Yay for +1!

“But here’s where it gets sticky: You can +1 content publicly (where others can see what you have +1’d) or privately (where you ‘anonymously’ +1 content). You can’t +1 some items publicly and some privately – it’s all or nothing. So, in addition to your colleague’s blog posts and that piece from Mashable, folks connected to you will also see that you +1’d that pithy blog your friend posted on his personal website where he’s hilariously telling someone off (they’ll probably also note your strongly-worded comment supporting his post). They’ll also see all those Grateful Dead videos you +1’d on YouTube, and that cute little lacy piece you recently purchased from Victoria’s Secret and just love, love, love. And they’ll start to get a better sense of who you are . . . personally. Oh no.

“So you’ll just delete your Google profile right now, avoid +1s, avoid Google+ and avoid this potential PR crisis, right? Not if you call yourself a PR professional, you won’t. You can’t. Your clients will be facing the same scenario and advising them to ‘set everything to private’ will only result in limiting their impact online – not to mention cause headaches for you down the line if/when they want to use this functionality (and they will). Now is not the time to stick your head in the sand and wish it all away. You need to be ready to proactively advise your clients and your employees on best practices. Figuring out how to use +1s and Google+ to your advantage is key.”

So, here’s what you need to do:

• Create a separate and distinct Gmail address and corresponding Google profile, and train yourself to use it only for professional purposes.
• Use this new profile to set up your Google+ account.
• If you don’t already have one, create a social media policy for your firm and your clients’ firms now.
• Provide social media training for all employees. They’re on social networks whether or not you approve – and they may be viewed as unofficial brand ambassadors. Make sure they are clear about online expectations – better safe than sorry.
• Explore Google+ now so that you’re familiar with the platform and it’s distinct features (circles, hangouts and sparks), and when they release the business page functionality, which is coming soon, you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Learn the platform now or play catch-up later.

Have you ever sent an email you didn’t mean to send? Have you ever written an email with no intention of sending it and then actually doing so? Have you ever accidentally sent an email to the wrong person? If you are a fan of The Office — do you remember the episode Michael returns from his Jamaican vacation with Jan and accidentally sends a racy photograph to the entire shipping warehouse? [If not, it's the "Back from Vacation" episode in Season 3. A highlight of that episode can be seen here. ]

Megan Casserly penned an article, 5 Emails That Could Cost You Your Job, and it in she notes email makes up the majority of our daily communication — especially in business. According to the Pew Research Center, the majority of employed adults (62%) use the Internet or email in the workplace. And yet social cues and etiquette are often overlooked.

Casserly quotes Cherie Kerr, the founder of EvecuProv, saying, “People do or say things via email that they would never do in person. They’d never upstage a higher up in a meeting, but in email there’s this disconnected feeling of not having to look anyone in the eye that emboldens people to act in competitive or even arrogant ways.”

Check out these serious email faux pas:

The Crime: When you’re having an email exchange with a coworker, and s/he escalates the conflict by sneakily cc’ing a higher-up.
Author Marsha Egan says it’s about respect: “What happened here is that she didn’t respect her coworker enough to give her the heads up about letting the boss in on the email.” Kerr agrees wholeheartedly. “If she’s going to cc anyone, she should be upfront about it because it might come back to bite her.”

The Crime: Preemptive auto-responses a la “Thank you for your email. I get an overwhelming amount of email, but I care about each one of them! I will respond as soon as it’s convenient.”
Kerr and Egan both recognize this as a no-no. “An auto response all the time can be seen as officious and arrogant even though the good intention is there,” says Egan. The offender may be thinking they are being polite in warning you that their response may be slow, but it comes across as condescending.

The Crime: The instant follow up
You want to make sure a coworker or client has received and read your email — calling or emailing seems like the logical way to find out. Right? Wrong, again. “Oh, the Double-Checking Billy,” sighs Egan. “They send an email and 10 minutes later call to make sure you’ve got it.” She describes this as entrapment, or a “gotcha” move. “And gotcha is not effective in business. It’s akin to sending a direct mail and calling to follow up.” The etiquette, she says, is to call prior to sending the email. “Let them know what you’ll be sending them and when.” Not only are they more likely to respond, she says, but more likely to read it in the first place.

Bottom line, Cutrone and Egan concur, is respect. And the golden rule. Stop and think about how you’d react if you were on the receiving end of your email. Would you be pleased? Motivated? Or would you feel affronted and wronged? If the latter, check yourself. For no matter how distanced or protected from the dreaded face-to-face interaction email can make us feel, there’s one certain design flaw that can make arrogant, selfish or even nefarious behavior come back to haunt you. It’s all in writing.

5 Email Habits That Send the Wrong Message:

Abusive Subject Line Behavior
Intention: By typing the word “URGENT,” “ACTION ITEM” or “READ ME” in the subject line, she is hoping to stress the actionable items of her email. Her message is clear. Perception: Her subject line implies that she presumes her message is more important than any other correspondence you might have received. The perception is that she is over-confident and thinks very little of your time.

Answering The Wrong Question
Intention: When a colleague on a group email answers questions that are under your purview before you have a chance to. He’s saving his colleague the hassle of answering — hey, he knows the answer too! Perception: It’s the online version of shouting out the answer without raising your hand. His colleague might think that he is undermining their authority or worse — out to get their job.

Copyediting a Coworker
Intention: He wants to ensure that the higher ups see a clean, well-spoken document. By editing his coworker’s email and resending it, he ensures that the grammatically correct email is higher in the supervisor’s inbox. Perception: Public shaming of a colleague is never going to get him anywhere. Both the colleague and the supervisor are made aware of this one-upsmanship. And neither of them like it.

CC’ing Up
Intention: When you’re having an email exchange with a co-worker, and s/he escalates the conflict by sneakily CCing a higher-up. She’s resolving the issue efficiently by letting a higher-up in on the conflict. Perception: She’s sneaky, conniving and out to make them look bad. Even more nefarious: the BCC.

Instant Follow Up
Intention: He wants to make sure you’ve received and read his email — calling or emailing right away seems like the logical way to find out. Perception: Give me a break! If you expect an instant response to a query, the more efficient route is to pick up the phone. Following up shortly after sending an email makes you seem impatient and self-righteous.

Next time, make sure you read, read, read your email — and look before you hit the send button!