Image: Flickr user Ivan Walsh

Oh joy—another PR Tools discussion!  Last we spoke, I argued for the importance for the press release in the PR industry.  I still stand by my statement that “the press release is the foundation of any earned media campaign,” but just as one must adapt to live, one must also accept change to survive in the PR industry.

In the last eighteen months, Twitter and Facebook and other social networks, such as Chatroulette, have taken off.  In order to exceed the status quo we (and other PR professionals as well) have had to adapt our styles, techniques and tools to maintain our audiences’ attention.

So how long do we have to maintain someone’s attention?  According to Wikipedia, the average adult will only focus on something for eight seconds unless the person engages in a sustained focus—the act of actively concentrating on an object or task at hand for twenty minutes or more.  This means that we have less than ten seconds to seduce our readers into an uninterrupted focus on our press release.  Catchy headlines and sub-headers are nice and dandy but what better way to tempt our readers than to include pictures, slideshows, etc. in the press release?  Websites like PitchEngine (an ELISE favorite) allow for graphics and videos to stream while the viewer reads or skims the release.  Since publishing our NCIIA March Madness for the Mind 2010 release on PitchEngine it has been viewed over 300 times.

As society begins to rely more heavily on visual news rather than the written word, the PR industry must be malleable and willing to conform to new practices and techniques that will emotionally entice the reader and motivate them to read about the story.  It isn’t enough to have a well-written story any more; graphics and visuals are necessary.  How will you incorporate them into your next PR campaign?

Flickr user jez`

I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter.

I’m logged into it all day for ELISE, and find it to be a fantastic resource. I’ve connected with other PR pros, found out who’s talking about our clients and reached out to journalists we couldn’t track down through more conventional means. Even on days when we’re not sending tweets, we all take some time over the course of the day to make sure we’re not missing out on any big news. (How do you think we learned of Michael Jackson’s untimely demise or the earthquake in Haiti?) And services like HootSuite and TweetDeck, both of which I use daily, allow users to filter out some static by monitoring key words in which they’re especially interested.

That’s when I love Twitter. But when I hate it, my animosity sometimes overshadows my love. It’s an animosity that I also feel for advertisers who run uninteresting Super Bowl commercials, bus passengers who talk too loudly on their cell phones and retailers who don’t honor competitors’ coupons: it’s a hatred of not understanding the power and reach of your chosen platform. Think about it:

• Super Bowl advertisers have a captive audience that wants to watch commercials almost as badly as they want to watch the game; if your commercial is boring, it could provide the 30 seconds your television audience needs to go open another beer.
• On the phone on a bus? Small metal spaces tend to make sound project, and now everyone knows about that nasty fungus you picked up at the gym.
• If you’re not honoring your competitors’ discounts, people will just go make that purchase—and the rest of their purchases—at your competitors’ stores, too.

So why would you provide bad information, share too much or ignore other people in your field, in your Twitter feed? These behaviors aren’t just bad practice; they’re downright rude. Not rude in the conventional sense—nasty or insulting—just rude in that they show utter disregard for the power and reach of Twitter as a platform and the engagement of people who use it.

There are approximately 75 million registered Twitter users worldwide. That’s a lot of content to sift through. People who provide good information or entertaining content or relevant news naturally get followers. People who send out pointless or self-promoting tweets, or who tweet out too much, too often, without showing that they’re listening to the conversations happening around (or about) them naturally lose followers. Being polite in your tweets by sharing carefully selected, useful or enjoyable information instead of flooding Twitter with a stream of posts nobody cares about will get you far.

And as to that content nobody cares about? You’ll have to tune in next time for some pointers on best practices for courtesy in the Twitterverse.

At ELISE, we make it our business to stay on top of what is happening in the world. Whether it is local Philadelphia news or a larger, global issue, we feel it is important to be aware and engaged. Perhaps because we are currently an all female outfit, we are particularly attuned to issues that affect the lives of women, worldwide.

For this reason among others, we are very pleased to be collaborating on an event with Health & Development International (HDI) at The Carter Center.

HDI will host its second global meeting on the prevention of obstetric fistula, a problem that plagues millions of women in developing countries. The event is taking place on March 9 & 10 at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, The Carter Center is committed to advancing human rights and creating a world in which every man, woman and child has the opportunity to live peacefully and enjoy good health.

HDI’s mission is to advance global public health and human dignity, particularly the health and socio-economic situation of under-served populations, which are especially vulnerable to and constrained by preventable, degrading disease.

In particular, HDI is devoted to the prevention of obstetric fistula, a humiliating, yet easily preventable complication of childbirth, that now exists almost only in the poorest developing countries.  HDI started the world’s first community-based rapid obstetric fistula prevention program in Bankilare, Niger. As a result, new obstetric fistula cases are down markedly in the project area, and deaths from obstructed labor are down 100 percent.  The once-silenced and shamed condition is now being addressed on the global stage. In his columns, as well as his new book, Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof spotlights the unnecessary suffering of these women and advocates for initiatives to fund medical facilities and provide care so these women may be cured.

ELISE is honored to support the efforts of organizations that address such critical needs as the right to good health—needs that go un-met for far too many. Thanks to organizations such as HDI and other like-minded groups wrestling with how best to scale up their efforts, this is changing.

Wow, it’s been awhile since last we covered a PR Tool.  Between planning for Tech4Society, March Madness for the Mind 2010, the opening of Marvels + Ciphers and signing new clients, we at ELISE have been very busy.  Part of the reason for our busy schedules has to do with the amount of press releases we have been pumping out lately.

Speaking of press releases, I have been hearing lately that press releases, like print media, are dead.  I am going to argue otherwise.  Since the general public is still relying on journalists for their news, journalists are still counting on press releases—and related targeted pitches from their trusted sources— for the most concise information.

The press release is the foundation for any earned media campaign.   It helps frame the argument and position the story for a reporter—and the general public— whether or not it is put on the Wire or even used in its entirety.  No media campaign is complete without a well-written press release.

As you know, the times have changed, and our PR Tools have evolved to meet current technology and communication needs.  The next PR Tools post will talk about the natural progression of the traditional release into social media press releases, a contemporary and useful PR tool.

Last fall, our awesome ELISE intern, Kira Loretto, wrote a thoughtful post about the potential harm social media can inflict on your career. People are beginning to learn this: don’t post photos of yourself engaging in illegal activity without making sure that nobody you don’t want to see them, can. Don’t set your Facebook status to read: “Don’t feel like going to work today. Calling in ’sick,’” if you’re friends with your boss.

But what about the things we post on-line that aren’t damaging … just annoying? In an article about Twitter for the New York Times last month, David Carr expressed the problem that many people have with social media platforms: nobody cares what you had for breakfast. Carr makes the argument that in spite of this, Twitter is a useful tool: you just have to be selective about who you follow.

Easier said than done. Aside from proving valuable resources for information, social media services like Facebook and Twitter allow us to stay connected to old friends and far-away family members like never before. How else would I be in touch with the German exchange students who spent a year at my high school, my cousin teaching math to girls in Qatar, my continent-crossing sister? By writing a letter? Surely, you’ve never seen my handwriting.

But my desire to stay connected to people in my life means that I can’t do as Carr suggested and be selective in my following and friending, only aligning myself (virtually) with people who provide solid, useful information. It means that I’m opening myself up to dozens, if not hundreds, of posts about what my friends had for breakfast. And more than that, it means that I’m on the receiving end of a terrific amount of overshare.

I’m not alone: countless Web sites and Internet memes have been devoted to people who “suck” at social media. Aside from enthusiastic self-promoters and “app” addicts, the one group that seems most universally hated is the oversharers.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Let’s take a little peek at your Facebook newsfeed, shall we? Your perpetually pregnant childhood friend posting about how “the morning sickness is so much worse than last time: I spent the morning throwing up!”? Overshare. Your lovelorn sorority sister who, after a date, posts: “Finally, a great date! Dinner and a movie and then …”? Overshare. All of the people you know who share break-ups, make-ups, potty stories, bedroom stories, and drunken pontifications? Over. Share.

Think of it this way: you run into an old acquaintance on the street. You haven’t seen each other in five years. Do you talk about your most recent trip to the bathroom, or your most recent trip to Bermuda? Unless you’re both gastroenterologists, I think you know what the answer should be. Use that mindset when posting to Facebook or Twitter: if you wouldn’t say it in person, it doesn’t belong on-line.

So please, folks: leave the poopy diapers, the bar brawls, and the deep moments of self introspection off your status messages and Twitter updates. These are things you should share with a select few, not the unwashed masses. It might not affect your career, but it’s guaranteed to affect your relationships with your social media contacts.

The recent earthquake in Haiti directed the world’s attention to the needs and suffering of a country that has long experienced dire poverty. Fortunately, there are organizations on the ground in Haiti and elsewhere that work daily to solve the world’s most pressing problems. At ELISE, we support clients who do just that. Through social innovation, education and entrepreneurship, our clients make the world a better place.

Today we continue that theme as we welcome the newest member of the ELISE family—SNV Netherlands Development Organization, an international development organization of Dutch origin currently at work in 32 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Balkans.

SNV works to implement local solutions to social and economic development challenges by supporting national and local actors within government, civil and private sectors. By providing support for local organizations, SNV sets the framework for the poor to strengthen their capacities and bring themselves out of poverty.

Its strategy is to alleviate poverty by focusing on increasing people’s income and employment opportunities in specific productive sectors, as well as improving access to basic services including water and sanitation, education and renewable energy. Above all, SNV is dedicated to a society in which all people enjoy freedom to pursue their own sustainable development.

Stay tuned to our blog for more information and updates on SNV. We are very excited to be working with an organization that shares our commitment to innovation and positive change.

Image by Flickr user Imran…

We’ve written before about our location in Philadelphia. Despite the international scope of our work here at ELISE, Philly is home. So we were excited yesterday when it was announced that Philadelphia is a contender to host a World Cup game in 2018 or 2022, if the United States is given the games. (Seventeen other U.S. cities, coast to coast, would also host matches.) Hosting the World Cup would enable us—finally—to cast Philly in a positive light. And also, I really like soccer.

But not long after the good news, a tragedy to obliterate the warm fuzzies: a magnitude seven earthquake in Haiti, destroying most of Port-au-Prince and potentially causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Haitian residents. And the first thing I thought of when the news hit last night? Soccer.

A few months ago, a friend of Carrie’s mentioned a project he was working on to try to deliver the World Cup to Haiti. The ELISE team was interested and did a little bit of research on this endeavor, thinking it segued nicely with our work in poverty alleviation and education. While the efforts to bring soccer on a large scale to this small island nation remain up in the air, we became quite familiar with Haiti and its robust and often volatile history. For better or for worse, yesterday’s quake affected us just a little more because it didn’t happen halfway around the world in a country we’d never heard of, but in a place not too far from American shores that we felt we’d gotten to know, if only a little.

This isn’t a post about PR. It’s a post about solidarity. As some of our favorite columnists here at ELISE reflect on the tragedy that befell the people of Haiti yesterday, we’re sending thoughts to Port-au-Prince, too. Here’s hoping that in no time at all, the soccer—and the joy—will find its way to you.

Happy New Year! We hope all of you are as excited for 2010 as we are here at ELISE. This is proving to be a fantastic year, chock-full of many new events and experiences. Over the next few months ELISE will be on the go, East Coast to West Coast and everywhere in between.

Here is just a sampling of some of our exciting work to come:

February 11-13, 2010: Tech4Society, an Ashoka-Lemelson celebration, will be held in Hyderabad, India. Tech4Society is a three-day conference that is expected to draw over 250 social entrepreneurs, innovators, business leaders and movers and shakers who will explore how technology can drive social change.

March 5, 2010: Opening of the Marvels and Ciphers exhibit at the museum at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Old City, Philadelphia. The world premiere exhibition examines the dichotomy that exists between scientist and citizen: the first group trying to understand the universe, and the second trying to understand the scientist.

March 8, 2010: Richard Holmes will be hosting a lecture and reading at CHF. Holmes is a biographer, whose latest book, The Age of Wonder (2008), was recently named the best nonfiction book of 2009 by TIME.  The Age of Wonder focuses on the life and work of the Romantic-age scientists who laid the foundation for modern science.

March 25-27, 2010: NCIIA’s annual March Madness for the Mind 2010 will be held at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California. The event showcases the nation’s top “E-Teams”—collaborating groups of college students, faculty and industry mentors who have received NCIIA grants—unveiling their inventions to the public, many for the first time.

Week of April 12, 2010: Launch of Kirk Boyd’s book, 2048: Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together, in San Francisco, California. The University of California, Berkeley Law Professor’s book focuses on an enforceable international agreement that will create a social order based upon human rights.

We are looking forward to all that 2010 has to offer.  Let us know if we will see you at any of these events and be sure to visit us on this blog and our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.

The ELISE communications headquarters is winding down now, so that we can all take time to spend the holiday season with our friends and family and get some respite for what will be a busy spring in 2010. If you need to reach any of us, you’ll still be able to get us via e-mail and cell—but the blog won’t be updated until after the holidays.

Until then, happy holidays to you and yours. We’re very thankful for a productive year at ELISE and are just now welcoming several new clients to our growing list! We’ll be back in two weeks with more updates on our clients; thoughts on the changing face of journalism; and PR and social media best practices. Can’t take the suspense? You can always peruse our archives (on your left).

Thanks to our friends and clients for a fantastic 2009, against all odds. We’ll see you next year!*

*In the meanwhile, have a little extra holiday cheer here.

At ELISE, we are proud to work with clients who do their part to support social innovation, entrepreneurship and education. And, just in time for Human Rights Day, we are excited to announce our new client, author Kirk Boyd and his book, 2048: Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together (April 2010; Berrett-Koehler Publishers).

The book furthers the ongoing international social movement started by Eleanor Roosevelt and others with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by explaining how the rights in this document can be made actionable in the courts of all countries. The plan in the book is supported by the 2048 Project at the U.C. Berkeley Law School. The Project—an affiliation of educational institutions, human rights centers, non-governmental organizations, businesses and foundations—is collaborating to educate students and the public about the evolution of human rights. If it sounds very much like the familiar saying “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” that would make sense because Boyd, the Executive Director of the 2048 Project and a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, has been inspired by Thomas Jefferson, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and more recently, the author of Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson.

The 2048 Project emphasizes our shared humanity, and looks to provide a process to draft an optimal international framework for enacting human rights that can be in place by the year 2048, the 100th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Welcome, Boyd, to ELISE and thank you for providing us with a guidebook on how we can participate in creating a more just society.