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.

ELISE Welcomes New Client, SNV Netherlands Development Organization

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.

Holiday Hiatus

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.

ELISE Welcomes New Client: Kirk Boyd, Human Rights Advocate

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.

Happy World Toilet Day?

The next time you excuse yourself to the restroom, you might pause to consider the 2.5 billion people worldwide who lack access to toilets and proper sanitation. That is nearly half the global population, and that is a lot of people. Tomorrow, November 19, is World Toilet Day, and while you probably don’t have it marked on your calendar, it represents a luxury that most of us take for granted. World Toilet Day celebrates the importance of sanitation and raises awareness for the billions of people whose health is endangered without it.

Some of our clients at ELISE are involved in projects that tackle these issues head on, in regions that are at the greatest risk. The Lemelson Foundation has teamed with Ashoka to support Ashoka-Lemelson Fellows who work directly to solve sanitation issues. Isaac Durojaiye founded DMT Mobile Toilets, the first mobile toilet initiative in Nigeria to provide facilities in strategic locations such as markets, parks and streets. Isaac is creating jobs as well, as all toilets are leased to unemployed youth who make fixed returns at the end of the day and keep any profit over that amount. In Kenya, David Kuria is creating high quality sanitation facilities accessible to the urban poor. The founder of IKO (coined from “eco”) Toilet, David engages urban communities in the design, construction, and management of the facilities.

In addition, The NCIIA provided a grant for the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Sustainable Solar Sanitation System. In partnership with the Emory University Center for Global Safe Water, Georgia Tech’s Research Institute has designed, built and tested a system, which, through solar energy, converts waste to fertilizer.

Here at ELISE, we are very inspired by our clients’ work to revolutionize sanitation and improve the health of communities across the world. By spreading the word about World Toilet Day, we hope that our readers will likewise be inspired to consider this global issue. Interested in taking part in the celebration? Check out the list of events. And happy flushing.

In Defense of Us

A few weeks ago, I ran into a friend of mine at happy hour. Conversation in our group turned to work, and when I mentioned that I really enjoy what I do, she turned to me and said: “Wow, really? I’m not used to hearing that from PR people.”

My friend is a freelance journalist, so I know she talks to PR people pretty often. But I was surprised by how many of my peers she perceives as unhappy in their profession. Surprised, that is, until I started thinking about what makes people unhappy at work. Sometimes, it’s because you don’t get along with your coworkers. Sometimes, you think you’re being underpaid. And sometimes, it’s because you’re really bad at your job. And it’s always amazed me, when I’m on my friend’s side of things and receiving pitches instead of sending them, just how genuinely bad some PR “professionals” are at what they do.

These are the people who give the whole public relations industry a bad rap. They’re the people who make journalists feel compelled to put warnings up on Cision stating: “John Doe is a reporter. He does not accept unsolicited pitches from PR flacks.” (Unfortunately, that’s not much of an exaggeration.) They’re the people that justify the existence of the Bad Pitch Blog and drive editors to call them out on Twitter. They pitch off-topic, don’t do their research, don’t bother to customize with so much as a “Dear John.” Frankly, they’re an embarrassment. And if they don’t like their jobs—well, they only have themselves to blame.

I like to think I’m good at my job. I certainly take the responsibility of it very seriously—and I know I’m not alone. There are good PR pros out there, if you know where to look. I’m lucky to work with a group of them here at ELISE.

We do a tremendous amount of research before we send pitches. Media lists, even when compiled from a list of journalists with whom we’ve already been in touch, take us days to put together because we’re checking up on every person we contact. Not to stalk them—just to get a feeling for what sort of story they’d want to write. We use our research and create custom pitches that show the people we’re talking why we think they’d be interested in what we have to say. The extra effort is appreciated; our response rate is consistently high, and we get enviable results for our clients. More than a few journalists have even complimented us on our approach—and even if they’re not interested in that particular story, they remember us the next time around.

It’s feedback like that, affirmation that we’re good at what we do, that gives me the confidence to tell a journalist friend, in all honesty, that I love my job. As PR pros, we sometimes have much to prove about the necessity of our field. But if more PR pros would pitch responsibly, our value would be undeniable.

A Reflection in the Key of E: Not All Internships Are About Coffee

Internships. Just like men say about women: you can’t live with them, and these days, you can’t get a job without them. Okay, that’s not what they say, but hopefully you get my point. The value of the internship is debatable depending on industry, but in public relations, experience is king. Some are dreams come true, others are waking nightmares (I’ve had both), but as I have learned, you will be hard pressed to get hired without a few internships under your belt. Now that I have been with ELISE for a few months, I wanted to comment on my experience as the resident intern.

You may recall from previous posts that I graduated from Haverford College in May of this past year. As a member of the not-so-affectionately dubbed Cursed Class of ’09, I am grateful every morning when my alarm goes off at 7:03 a.m. and I wake up to go to work.

Midway through my senior year of college, I realized along with thousands of my peers that I would be graduating during the worst recession in recent history. Reluctantly, I considered my options: the relentless and daunting search for employment, a mad scramble to apply to graduate school, or a year back home in New Jersey. Not too thrilled with option three, and ready for a break from academia, I chose to embark on the job search with a clear goal in mind: to land a job in public relations, an industry notoriously difficult to break into in a healthy economy, let alone one flat on its back. To make a long story short, I endured seemingly endless frustration, half due to the frozen economy, the other half to my naiveté. Then, three weeks before graduation, I found ELISE communications in Philadelphia and was offered an internship. My search had finally ended.

I write from my desk, in the Old City loft that houses the formerly three, now four-woman outfit that is ELISE communications, where I have worked as an intern for the past three months. ELISE is not your typical public relations firm, and the work I do is not typical of any internship I have held in the past. I work alongside three extremely intelligent, eloquent and driven women all under the age of 35, who motivate me on a daily basis. ELISE functions as a team, on which I am a key player. I tackle projects with the Principal, and there is not a press release, media alert or even blog post that goes out before passing under four sets of eyes. As a 22-year-old, fresh from college, it is extremely encouraging to work in an environment where my opinion is sought and my input valued.

I am likewise motivated by the clients that ELISE works with, all of whom are focused on social innovation, entrepreneurship, invention and education. PR catches a lot of flack for being fluffy, or soulless. Our clients are saving the world, quite literally. It is difficult not to be inspired, not just from 9-5, but also on my career path. If ELISE has done one thing for me, it has set the bar high by allowing me to be in the thick of everything we do. Not all internships revolve around spreadsheets and coffee runs. If you’d like proof, take a visit to 215 Church Street, and I’ll tell you myself.

Why You Should Hire a Female. (Part 2 of 2)

My new favorite thing to read is The New Yorker. It always surprises me. Case in point, this past weekend I read a story about Kroll, Inc. Coincidentally, I was talking to an old client last Friday from Marsh Inc., a sister company to Kroll and part of the family of Marsh & McLennan Companies. I was managing the Marsh Portland account around the time it purchased Kroll from Jules Kroll, its founder.

Jules, I learned from The New Yorker article, is an interesting fellow and his opinions only add to the intrigue of Kroll—a risk-mitigation firm that functions as an investigator-meets-crisis-communications partner for mostly private companies. Sounds a little like Law and Order, my favorite show.

You might have read my post from a few weeks ago about how one of the good decisions that successful companies make is to hire females. And, it turns out that Jules Kroll echoed that same sentiment in this interview:

“I like to mix it up. You need at least one woman on any team. She’ll have a different view.”

It was interesting to see that his view concurred with the Pepperdine research. Interesting in particular to me, as he was part of a publicly-traded Wall Street firm in an industry which I found to be sorely lacking females and very male. It’s the type of environment that is more often than not about golf, drinking and swearing. And don’t get me wrong, I like some of these activities.

“A different view,” to quote Jules. Does that mean better? Unlike? Dissimilar? Or perhaps, it just completes the picture. And, he had other ideas that any entrepreneur and leader of a company (whether female or male) can learn from:

(1)         Build client trust: “You gain their trust, they’re going to want to try your soup and your dessert.”

(2)         Diversify your service offerings: “Once you’ve been invited to someone’s dining room to feed them, you want to have more than salad to offer.”

This too is similar to what we hold most sacred at ELISE: our contacts. Clients and contacts and operating a relationship-based business, that, oh yeah, has a few females. This is what we find is the recipe for success at ELISE.

Social Media’s Gray Area…Toeing the Line Between Invasion of Privacy and Just Being Smart About It

In this day and age, it seems like everybody and their mother has a Facebook, and for better or worse, I’m being literal. My mom hasn’t hopped on the bandwagon yet, but the point is, you can’t keep track of everyone who is out there in cyberspace reading your posted information, be it an admissions counselor, ex-boyfriend, or employer. In fact, just this week, Facebook’s user population nearly equaled that of the U.S.

Social media allows you to create an impression on people, and just as with face-to-face interactions, you would like the impression to be a good one. This freedom of expression that the Internet equips us with, through sites like Twitter, Facebook, personal blogs and even professional networking sites such as LinkedIn—while it is certainly liberating, can also be dangerous if you aren’t careful (read: you don’t use common sense). In the last few years, social media has evolved from a largely personal tool for connecting with friends, new and old, to a universe in which it is uncommon for a major public figure, large corporation, or maybe your average socially conscious PR firm not to have a Twitter account. Social media is everywhere, and like Geico’s latest advertising campaign, the little money stack with eyes,  it’s watching you.

With this in mind, a few weeks ago I read an article on the dangers of social media for your career, and it struck a chord with me. We all have moments when we are frustrated with life, but there is something to be said for not airing dirty laundry in public. For instance, if you happen to follow the company Twitter, or are Facebook friends with your co-workers, it’s probably not the best idea to publicly complain about your job. When I see my friends do this, I cringe in discomfort for them. Even law enforcement uses Facebook these days, though they won’t be writing on your wall. Just the other week, an annual party at my alma mater was broken up by the police after they read details of it on a Facebook event page.

While some might consider this an invasion of privacy, if it’s out there, someone will find it. Hear me now, people, and thank me later. Use the old rule of thumb… If you wouldn’t want your mother to see it, read it, or hear about it, then don’t post it, because like I said at the beginning, chances of that are increasing.

Social media is meant to help you, not hurt you. Freedom of expression is one of the many great things about our wonderful country, but a little self-censoring never hurt anyone (and I bet it never lost anyone their job either).

Three Reasons to Choose ELISE…

We continuously ask our clients: what differentiates you from the crowd? Why should people care about your mission, product or service? How do you want your customers and the public in general to respond to you? Why, in a nutshell, are you relevant?

So, it only makes sense that we discuss what differentiates ELISE, and what makes us unique, although we are not going to share all of our “special sauce” right here and now.

(1) Relationships matter to us.
I keep telling family, friends, prospective clients, etc., how fortunate ELISE is during this current economic turmoil. If we hadn’t been cultivating relationships over the course of the past ten years, starting with my first job in communications at the Lemelson-MIT Program , I am not sure if we would still be in business. As companies struggle to pay for healthcare, cover salaries and make a profit, outside marketing and PR are one of those budget line items that often get cut first (tune in next week for my thoughts on that).

We hope that once you know us, and work with us, you will want us around. We try to be “Made to Stick.” We like to be as integrated as possible with clients’ objectives and goals and find that our tactics must reflect this strategy. We prefer to work with clients on long-term contracts (six months or annual) even if we could make more money by recording our hours. ELISE takes this same relationship-based approach with journalists… we don’t view our job as transactional and don’t want any member of the media that we speak with to feel as though they are being pitched. We want to create a dialogue about our clients and hope that the public—including the media—will participate.

(2) We always do our homework.
How many of us have had anxiety dreams where we are unprepared to take an exam or haven’t done our homework? Well, ELISE stops the madness. We are thorough researchers, and the staff is comprised of liberal arts graduates who did a lot of reading and writing throughout their lives. We are naturally curious and this means that when we call a reporter we all but know what they like to eat for breakfast. Being thorough permeates the ELISE corporate culture as well. Every Thursday at 2:00 p.m. we meet to have “coffee talk,” an informal gathering to discuss the changing world of media and new journalists we would like to engage. Also, we invite monthly speakers to provide insight into their industry and share best practices. There is always room to learn more and operate better and faster at ELISE.

(3)  We have identified a niche industry.
ELISE focuses on innovative products and companies and organizations with a soul. What does that mean? If your primary objective is to make money, we probably don’t want to work with you. Why, you might say? Because we (and others) have found that people and companies solely focused on money, rank and power, fail. ELISE believes in clients that have something insightful to share with society. This could be a groundbreaking event, the publication of a book or a consumer product launch. It could be opening a museum or promoting a mission-driven organization. It might mean executing a public advocacy campaign, setting up a speakers’ bureau or conducting media relations.  Our clients take the shape of for-profits, non-profits or even hybrid organizations. The key is this: focus. By focusing on a niche industry—invention and innovation, entrepreneurship, science and technology—we get to work with interesting people doing interesting things. And that makes us relevant.