Twitter Gets a Facelift, Focuses on More Visuals

Posted on September 25, 2012 by elysealtiere

You’ve no doubt heard a lot of the buzz about the new changes to Twitter. Whether on your desktop, iPad, Android or iPhone, the first thing you’ll notice is Twitter has taken its cue from Facebook with its cool new timeline-like feature called the header photo. Entrepreneurs and businesses will appreciate the near-instant recognition this offers their brands.

So what do you need to know to ensure your Twitter account doesn’t look outdated? The recommended dimensions for the header photo are 1200×600 and the maximum file size is 5MB. The photo will stay consistent on mobile Apps including iPhone, iPad, Android and Twitter.com.

Your photo or logo will appear on your header image once you’ve uploaded a new image under “Change Header.” Your Twitter handle, bio and website will also appear on your new header image. Remember, your background image will not change and will still appear as is once you’ve uploaded your new header image. Photos that you tweet will be moved up and appear more prominent on the photo stream. Photos will now be available full-screen via the Twitter App on the iPad, iPhone and Android. With these visual changes, brands need to be aware it’s vital to provide exceptional visual content in order to engage their audiences.

Here are a few tips to make the most out of the new header photo:

Use a photo that enhances your brand.
Let your personality shine through.
Remember, that unlike the old Twitter, your header image will appear the same on iPhone, Android, etc. and it will be the first thing others see when viewing your account.
Keep your header photo simple, you don’t want to overwhelm everyone.
Follow the correct dimensions.
Have fun with it!

Read more about the changes to Twitter here and view examples of a few accounts already using the new header photo: http://blog.twitter.com/2012/09/because-you-have-more-to-show.html

The Picture – or Rich Media – Is Worth 1,000 Words

Posted on September 4, 2012 by kimballpr

For the public relations practitioners out there, let’s take a poll: How important do you think visual elements are to journalists?

A) Very important.

B) Not important at all.

If you answered A) Very important, then your views align with 80 percent of the journalists polled in a recent PRESSfeed survey who said it is important or very important to “have access to photographs and visual images.”

While your answer might have matched up to journalists, nearly half of the PR practitioners polled said visuals in news stories are not important at all to journalists.

Of the surveyed PR professionals, 45 percent said visuals were unnecessary in news stories. Another 39 percent said the same for press releases. Even considering the wording of the survey and how answers might have been perceived, these results demonstrate a stark divide between journalists and PR practitioners regarding the value and need for visual content.

As social media trends continue to embrace highly visual platforms, such as Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter, I ask: how could the polled PR practitioners not answer in favor of visuals paired with news content?

Although journalists have controlled the media straps for decades with article placements, PR professionals have their hands firmly on the reigns regarding social media content and engagement. The polled PR practitioners should have considered the volume of pictures and video populating all social media pages as they were clicking in answers to the PRESSfeed survey.

PR Newswire also conducted a study demonstrating the increasing number of press release views where visual content is added. In that study, press releases with photos, video and other media receive 77 percent more views than text-only releases – a lesson PR practitioners know – or should know – instinctively, and need to consider when filling out future surveys on the subject. Get the picture?

Ten Years Later – Are You Ready for a Crisis?

Posted on June 7, 2012 by kimballpr

*Originally published in IMCA’s membership newsletter

In March 2002 I walked into conference workshop on behalf of an insurer to do a presentation on crisis response. It was the same conference and topic that I had presented the year before to about 40 people. This year there was 250 people. They moved me into a ballroom.

Once I got my nerves under control I asked myself what had changed? September 11, 2001, of course. The World Trade Center attacks had put crisis preparedness on everyone’s agenda. There was a mass wake-up call that we had to be prepared for the unexpected.

Ten years later, I’m not sure we are. In talking to friends in the industry, it is surprising how many companies still define a crisis too narrowly, forget to make communications a cornerstone of the plan, or don’t update their plans to account for new developments like social media.

Even in insurance, an industry that is all about evaluating risk, it is too easy to get complacent. That’s big mistake.

Here is a quick checklist to see if you are really prepared:

Your crisis response plans take into account all types of crises.

The point of a crisis is that it often comes on quickly and unexpectedly. Two things we do know is that you can’t fully predict how a crisis will unfold and you can’t start planning once it happens. So a crisis response plan should cover any eventuality – even if you don’t think it will happen. That means terrorist attacks, natural disasters, medical emergencies (think H1N1), internal corruption, financial issues, employment issues and more.

Your plans include input from everyone who should be involved.

A planning team should include not just public relations and operations, but your lawyers, customer service, human resources, outside emergency management officials and more. You want everyone from every department involved in planning – and engaged in the response.

Communications is a cornerstone of the plan.

Too often a crisis plan hinges more on logistical, financial and legal issues and not on communicating with all your stakeholders – customers, community, shareholders, employees, partners, vendors, etc. In today’s world you are judged by how well you communicate. Be ready, do it well, and you can improve your image during the crisis.

Your media response and social media plans are solid.

You must have designated spokespeople and clear protocol to ensure your company is speaking with one voice, and one consistent and effective message. Get media training for all key players, taking into account all media. And make sure social media is integrated in your plan – how will you monitor and respond using social media?

You have a strong leader who can be your spokesperson and communicate effectively.

You need strong leadership in a crisis. Rudy Guiliani made his mark after September 11. Is your CEO the right one to communicate in a crisis? While he or she is the first and obvious choice, it may not be the best. Remember BP’s CEO Tony Hayward?

Your plan is updated annually and takes into account new developments.

There is nothing worse than creating a good plan and sticking it on the shelf to collect dust. Plans only work if there are frequent updates and practice. We used to estimate that you had to be able to communicate effectively within 24 hours of a crisis. Now, with social media, you must be able to act in an hour. That’s not a lot of time.

If you can’t check off everything in this list, then it’s probably a good idea to take a fresh look at your crisis response planning. Remember, those first hours after a crisis are crucial to how your stakeholders will perceive your company’s image. Don’t skimp on the time and money in good planning – or you’ll be paying a lot more later to clean up the damage.

Helping Clients Take Ownership for Social Media

Posted on April 17, 2012 by elysealtiere

We manage many social media account for our clients, but that doesn’t mean their social media presence is entirely out of their hands. We’ve found it’s important to engage clients in social media activity. It seems simple, but can have a huge effect on the quality of your client’s social media presence.

Often, fans view brand posts as robotic and have trouble identifying that a real person is actually posting. Having the “voice” of a client is vital in running engaging social media accounts and lends a personal feel. Below are ideas and tips for getting clients involved, helping them feel more comfortable with posting and what we’re currently doing to get our clients involved.

Getting Clients Involved in Social Media

Let’s face it: posting the same content can get stale! No one will be interested in boring robotic content. Keep your audience interested about what you’re posting. You can’t always do that unless you have the help of your clients, who are the experts in their field. Get your clients excited about social media and help them feel comfortable.

Ask clients to provide photos of events, employees, every day life around the office, etc. Visuals are an effective and easy way to get clients involved and get consumers interested.
Suggest shooting a 30-60 second video each month directly on the Facebook wall. No need for a fancy camera. Facebook allows you to record videos directly on your Facebook wall, and you can use built-in computer camera or a smartphone camera. Videos can drive traffic to your client’s site.
Suggest clients provide trivia/poll questions related to their brand to engage consumers.
Get clients to dive into the conversation. For example, if another brand posts an interesting article, have the client participate in the conversation. It’s crucial not to hide behind your own page and just post your own content all the time. Be active!

How to Make Clients Comfortable with Posting/Sharing Content:

Create sample posts and share with clients.
Create possible responses for conversations they can partake in.
Show them how other, similar brands are engaging.

What We’re Currently Doing to Engage our Clients:

We’ve seen first-hand the benefits of client involvement in social media. Below are some ways our clients are getting involved.

Each week or every other week, our clients provide a quick tip for people working in their industry, which helps to build engagement.
With some posts, we include a photo of the employee who provides the content. This way there’s a face associated with a post.
With the launch of the new Facebook Timeline on March 30, we’ve been asking some of our clients to send old photos, documents, etc. to build Timeline. It’s an easy way to get clients excited and it’s a great way to tell the story of a brand through photos.

Consumers gravitate towards original content that clearly reflects what they value in a brand — not just automated updates from a third party. Lastly, don’t forget to take a deep breath and relax! Social media should be a fun interactive place for both clients and customers.

Where I am in June

Posted on June 9, 2011 by kimballpr

It’s June and that means I start my annual trek crisscrossing the United States for our long-time client AMSkier Insurance. AMSkier insures children’s camps (in fact, they are the largest direct insurer of camps in the country). Company president Henry Skier came up with a novel idea a couple decades ago – offer a 24-hour crisis management services to the camps they insure. And that’s where I come in, handling crises when they arise at camps in the summer months. But that’s not why I travel in June.

Several years ago, Henry asked me to fill in and do some of the staff safety training during orientation. Hmm… other than war stories from the crises I’ve managed, what did I know about training staff? Not much. But with the lure of trips to places like Malibu and Carmel Valley, and training by my colleague and friend Norm Friedman, I reluctantly agreed. I found myself in front of hundreds of counselors discussing sexual abuse and other tough topics. Frankly, I was terrified. But I was well received and reluctantly agreed to do a few other camps the next year.

Then something happened. As I discussed how to handle disclosures of abuse to a group of counselors in Chattanooga, a young woman stood up and told her fellow counselors that this very advice I had given the year before had helped her help a little girl who had been abused at home. That was the epiphany. Sure, this was not my specialty and certainly not my comfort zone. But these workshops were helping keep kids safe.

So now I’m 30,000 feet in the air en route to Texas, followed by California, Palm Desert, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and more. I’m still not in my comfort zone, still terrified and still hate flying. But each year I agree. I just can’t get that image from Chattanooga out of my mind.

Sony’s Hacking Response: The Good, the Bad, the Vague

Posted on May 4, 2011 by kimballpr

As you have probably heard, Sony has revealed that their customer databases have been hacked twice in the past month, potentially affecting users of their PlayStation Network, Qriocity and Sony Online Entertainment products. Not only have legions of gamers been dealing with a blackout of services that they pay for and fear that their credit card information may have been stolen – but Sony failed to inform them of this massive cyber attack for a week.

According to news reports, Sony learned that they had been hacked on April 19th, took down PlayStation Network service on the 20th, and told customers seven days later, on the 27^th. Sony maintains that they were unaware of the breadth of the attack until much later, but I’m not sure that is a good reason for their failure to inform customers more quickly.

Sony gamers, internet security experts, and the odd politician are angry that Sony waited so long. From a PR perspective, the outlook is equally troubling. Sony had an opportunity to take control of the situation and keep this group of highly engaged customers as happy as possible considering the circumstances. Instead, they have turned a challenging situation into a major image problem.

However, I do think some of the lambasting from the press is unwarranted. Sony could have provided more information up front, but they have made great use of the PlayStation blog to consistently communicate with their customers, including lengthy customer Q&As. Of course, the content of that communication could have been better early on.

What do you think? Could Sony have communicated better about this security breach?

Becoming Mobile and Social – Reflections from the IMCA Creative Forum

Posted on February 23, 2011 by kimballpr

Finding really valuable take-aways from industry conferences can be a challenge. I went into the IMCA Creative Forum in Atlanta on Feb. 21 with a vested interest (full disclosure: I am on the IMCA board), but also some anticipation to learn more about everything from mobile marketing to social media integration.

Jon Beber of BilltoMobile opened the forum with insight into the incredible impact mobile marketing will have on our lives and the strategies of marketing and communications pros – smart phones, not computers, will drive everyday life and “PC analytics will not work with smart phones.” Mobile marketing needs to be part of the integrated communications mix.

James Wisdom, Director of New Media at Aflac, was a great follow-up with “The Power of Authenticity.” In this context, he discussed Aflac’s response to customer services issues raised on Facebook and their use of the Facebook Causes app: “If social media is talking about a cause, people are okay getting hammered about it.” More information I could use.

John Coombe of Liberty Mutual built on those ideas, describing their success with the Liberty Responsibility Project. He explained how this helped Liberty overcome consumer distrust about insurance and raised brand awareness 50 percent. They engaged customers in a dialogue and celebrated their customers’ responsibility – engaging over 10 million unique visitors. He also pointed out that 67% of agents are engaged in social media. That’s a tidbit that will help.

These are all great ideas and tidbits of information, but how do I sell these to my clients who may be timid or help them pitch their forward-thinking communications ideas to management? No worry – it was Sam Harrison up next with great tools for pitching ideas, all built on that great David Olgivy quote: “Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea until its presented to them by a good salesperson.” And he added 5 ideas for pitching ideas to management, emphasizing that “passion is a transfer of enthusiasm.”

After lunch, Tom Pytel of Allied World showed how his in-house creative team breaks through the marketing boredom and never lets budget limit creativity. Innovating collateral is not specifically relevant to my work, but it was inspiring to all of us who may be tempted to succumb to mediocrity.

And finally Howard Yermish (he claims to be the only one by that name) on “Internet Marketing, Creativity and Stravinsky.” He captured my interest with: “If you think you can control the flow of information from point A to point B, the Internet will kill you,” and kept on with an inspiring, hour-long presentation on unlocking our creativity using lessons from composers. We then broke into groups to put the theories to the test.

As you can probably tell, I walked away from the Creative Forum bursting with new ideas, my left and right brain feeling some connection. Not only did I gain practical information on mobile marketing and more, but I was inspired to push our clients with bolder ideas – and I have better tools to sell them on these ideas.

Camps and Crises: Lessons for 2011

Posted on February 9, 2011 by kimballpr

About this time of year, every year, I have to ask question that nobody wants to think about: what disasters could shut down a summer children’s camp?

This is the time of year when I begin speaking to the children’s camp community about managing and preparing for emergencies and crises in the coming season. I’m beginning the 2011 season with a presentation at the American Camp Association National Conference, which kicked off Tuesday in San Diego.

As you can imagine, there are certain concerns camps must be prepared for every year, like potential camper injuries. However, it’s already clear that 2011 may offer particular challenges for camps:

Food allergies: Has it seemed like more and more kids are coming to camp reporting food allergies? It turns out that food allergies truly are on the rise on the rise in the U.S.
Extreme weather: On the East Coast, we’ve been experiencing one intense winter. Experts are predicting that extreme weather may continue to be a problem this year. Unusual weather around the world is already affecting global food prices.
Infectious disease: With increasingly numbers of children not being vaccinated, we’re seeing an increased potential for outbreaks of childhood diseases that Americans haven’t encountered in decades, like measles and mumps. Plus, pertussis made an unfortunate comeback in 2010.

Of course, some of these concerns may seem like distant possibilities, but H1N1 took camps by surprise in 2009 and no one really knows when or how an emergency will emerge. That’s what makes it so important to prepare for every eventuality with a well thought out emergency response plan. And beyond the logistical considerations of emergency response, camps must also consider communications.

Believe it or not, camps can learn a great deal about effective communications by paying attention to corporate PR blunders. Toyota failed to communicate quickly and effectively about their massive 2010 recalls, sacrificing its reputation (see my earlier post on this). In the wake of the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP’s reputation took an even bigger hit because of their ineffective front man and misguided attempt to spin the situation.

Americans angry about the oil spill also took to Twitter and Facebook in droves, with one critic going as far as to create a Twitter account that satirized BP’s corporate PR. Social media and the rise in internet news sources are also relevant to a camp director in times of crisis. This is making it more important than ever to communicate quickly and effectively over a variety of media, even for camps.

What do you think camps should be prepared for in 2011?

(Are you at the ACA conference? You can attend my session on Thursday, February 11 at 10 AM, in Aqua 311.)

Reflections on My H1N1 Presentation

Posted on February 19, 2010 by kimballpr

The American Camp Association’s National Conference has become a regular speaking engagement for me, and I was in Denver on Feb. 17 for the 2010 conference to present “Swine in ’09 – Lessons Learned That Will Help in 2010. Children’s camps, schools, travel programs and other who serve children were, in some cases, severely affected by the H1N1 virus during the summer 2009.

Last summer, working with a top infectious disease physician and infection control nurse, I provided crisis management consulting services for many of these programs. Recently, my client for which I provide these services, AMSkier Insurance, conducted a survey of camp experiences with the virus. Based on those results and my experience during the 2009 season, I gave a 75-minute talk.

As an aside and pat on my back, at last year’s conference in Orlando, I presented my usual topic of “Crisis Planning and Response,” and listed about eight possible “emergencies” camp directors could face in 2009. On the list was “influenza pandemic.” How about that!

Back to the point. During my session in Denver, which drew camp directors from Turkey and Russia, as well as the U.S. and Canada, I discussed seven lessons learned from the 2009 season. Some were obvious, like better disinfection and hand washing, and some technical, like identifying symptoms, quick isolation, treatment and working with the Department of Health.

But the top issue that many camps cited in being able to effectively control an infectious disease like H1N1 was communications. Those who communicated proactively and effectively with their camp families, communities, health officials and, in some cases, the media, were not only able to better control the spread of the virus, but they built good will in the process.

In a crisis, communication is king. You hear that Tiger and Toyota?

PR Matters

Insights, analysis and lessons learned through media engagement.

The Picture – or Rich Media – Is Worth 1,000 Words

Where I am in June

Sony’s Hacking Response: The Good, the Bad, the Vague

Camps and Crises: Lessons for 2011

Reflections on My H1N1 Presentation

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Your crisis response plans take into account all types of crises.

Your plans include input from everyone who should be involved.

Communications is a cornerstone of the plan.

Your media response and social media plans are solid.

You have a strong leader who can be your spokesperson and communicate effectively.

Your plan is updated annually and takes into account new developments.

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