New Client, Health & Development International, Engages ELISE in Women’s Health Event at Carter Center

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.

PR Tools: The Press Release

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.

Is Overshare the New Norm?

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.