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Social Good

Communicating to Millennials on PR Expanded

A FEEL-First Approach to Comms to Build Genuine Relationships [INFOGRAPHIC]

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I’m on a research journey, because I believe you have to FEEL first to build genuine and caring relationships. When you FEEL (Face Fears, connect with Empathy, focus on Ethics and unleash your Love of the mission) it shows in your communication and you can connect on a deeper level, especially with younger generations.

You can download the Infographic here on my blog, which details a FEEL-First Test with questions to answer before you communicate. Please share this Infographic with any modern communicators or business professionals you know who are trying to reach younger audiences. Why? Because research about Millennials and younger generations reveal eye-opening statistics (you can watch the video below to learn more) and you just don’t know what someone is experiencing by monitoring their social media posts.

Do you really know who you’re trying to reach and engage? Would a FEEL first approach help you to build relationships that are based on care and compassion?

FEEL First Before You Communicate

Here’s a little more info in my video detailing the FEEL-First Approach to your communications.

Featured Image Photo by Wyron A on Unsplash

Cameron Brown

Make A Greater Impact In 2018 With International Speaker & Storyteller, Cameron Brown

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the-thriving-collective-photo-2The New Year is off to a great start and you may be working on the different ways to create greater impact in your career and life. I had a conversation with International speaker and storyteller, Cameron Brown, about creating impact in 2018. Cameron is also the founder of The Thriving Collective and creator of The Impact Diaries. He’s developed a helpful checklist with 47 different ways you can make a greater impact, from your own health and well-being to your business and to how you approach impact on a larger scale … for the planet.

“We as humans have the opportunity to make a a positive impact on three different levels … in our own lives, we can impact the lives of others, and we can have an impact on the planet too,” says Cameron Brown. After reviewing all of Cameron’s 47 ways to make a greater impact, it was a difficult choice, but I’ve selected my top six. These action items resonated with me on all of the three levels that Cameron mentioned.

  1. Nurture your curiosity, it opens you up to possibilities you haven’t thought of yet.
  2. Be ok with not knowing or needing to know, it develops your flexibility & adaptability to change.
  3. Design the impact your company will make in the world on all 3 levels (self, others, planet).
  4. Be ok with being vulnerable… in doing so, you give others permission to do the same and a deep bond can form quickly.
  5. Expose yourself to different belief systems and ways of treating our planet (good & bad), contrast challenges and changes.
  6. Stop (or reduce) watching TV and be conscious of your time online to help you personally determine your consumer behavior.

Cameron was kind enough to explain these six ways to create greater impact in more detail. You can click on the audio button to listen to Cameron’s thoughts around each opportunity, and how you can create impact too. Enjoy!

macbook-privacy

Mobilizing Your Social Media Workforce

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macbook-privacyHave you thought about the potential of mobilizing your entire workforce through social media rather than one or two individual voices?  What are the steps to harness the power of social media within the organization? I’ve been doing a lot of work in the area of social media policy development, training and governance over the past few years. A friend and colleague, Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman), CEO of social media training provider Comply Socially, shares my passion for educating companies on how they can leverage social media effectively.

I recently connected with Eric for a couple of reasons. First, it’s always great to catch up with friends. I also wanted to check out a demo of Comply Socially and discuss with Eric the best ways to mobilize a workforce to scale social media engagement.  Here’s the Q&A with Eric who shares his insights on the topic.

1. Why is it important for companies to not only develop a social media policy but to also provide training and governance?

Lawful social media policies are important because they give organizations a basis for governing how employees use social networks for work. They play a role in how employers manage social media risk and compliance. But most social media policies are unlawful.

In 2013, there were 28 National Labor Relations Board cases of wrongful terminations at Costco, EchoStar and other companies based on unlawful social media policies. So if you want to make sure your social media policy is lawful, don’t include any language that could be seen chilling workers rights to discuss wages, hours and working conditions. We have a free white paper on drafting social media policies for those who want to steer clear of the land mines.

But even if your social media policy is lawful, don’t expect anyone to actually read it. According to an NYU study of how many people actually read end user license agreements online before accepting them, only one or two out of every thousand retail software shoppers even open the license agreement when they make a purchase, and those few who do spend far too little time to read more than a small portion of the license text.

So if you want them to comply with your social media policy, they need social media policy training.

2. There is a lot organizations should be doing, but resources are always an issue. Why is social media policy training something they should do now?

What’s crazy is we spend so much time on crisis management and barely any time at all preventing them from happening. And crisis management is so much more expensive and so much less effective than preventative measures.

The first question you’ll be asked in a legal dispute is, “Was the employee trained?”

When there’s a case where the social media compliance issues weren’t discovered or where they were ignored, the consequences are exceedingly severe. Now’s the time to get in front of this because government regulations have spiked under the Obama administration. The new SEC chair Mary Jo White and the new FTC chair Edith Ramirez are more aggressive on enforcement.

Social media policy without training is lip service, because you can’t comply with a policy you don’t understand. You can’t protect yourself, or your organization, if you don’t understand the risks.  That’s why we introduced a self-paced social media policy training curriculum with assessments and certification management.

3.  What do most companies “fear” when it comes to employees or members of their organization participating in social media on their behalf?

They fear social media risk because it’s unmanageable. The risks are real. Their fears are warranted.

Damaged reputations can result in lost sales, lowered perceived value and long-term financial instability. You don’t have to be malicious to damage your employer’s reputation. Just choose an easy to hack password or fall for a social engineering scam, and you can obliterate brand value.

When the Syrian Electronic Army hacked the AP’s Twitter account and sent a bogus tweet about explosions in the White House, the Dow plunged 140 points.

Leaked proprietary data can jeopardize competitiveness. Think of how easy it is to your reveal your customers or suppliers by syncing your social networking connections with your web mail account. All it takes is a few clicks.

Being out of compliance with the increasingly complex rules and regulations around how companies can and can’t use social media can result in fines, investigations and complaints, draining worker productivity and lowering morale. It’s really easy for discrimination, harassment and defamation to creep out onto social networks.

Viruses and malware can cripple productivity and be very expensive to purge. And increasingly, as employees bring their own devices to work, access their employer’s wireless network and charge their batteries off the USB ports of employer owned hardware, the likelihood of security breaches and industrial espionage increases as well.

4. Why did you launch Comply Socially and how will your platform help companies to be more compliant in their social media communications?

After training thousands of communicators at federal government agencies, military commands, multinational corporations and non-profits and seeing them all hit the same brick wall, I thought there has to be a way to leverage eLearning to manage social media risk.

To authentically engage at a personal and local level, organizations are becoming less interested in enabling one or two voices to manage their corporate social media accounts, and much more intent on mobilizing their entire workforce to scale social media engagement. I wrote a white paper on this topic as well that you can download here if you’re interested.

5.  What are some good resources for companies who want to be frequently updated on social compliance?

iphone-trainingYou can sign up for the Social Media Compliance Newsletter at http://www.complysocially.com and follow the company on Twitter @complysocially. (Eric was also kind enough to set up a link for my blog readers to access one of their self-paced social media compliance trainings courses for free:  http://inter.viewcentral.com/reg/complysocially/deirdre)

I hope you will check out Comply Socially and share your thoughts about social media policies, training and compliance with us.

A Young Woman’s Perspective on International Women’s Day

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March 8,2012 is International Women’s Day (IWD) and Oxfam America is celebrating women who are making a difference in the fight against hunger and poverty. These incredible women around the world are tackling challenges, one initiative at a time. There are women who feed and provide for their children, but are facing hardships that make it nearly impossible. They’re among the one in seven people who go to bed hungry every night. And, this isn’t because there isn’t enough food to go around. It’s because there are deep imbalances in access to resources like fertile lands and water.

In recognition of IWD, I wanted to get a young woman’s perspective on praising women for their accomplishments.  I asked my16 year-old daughter about her thoughts on the characteristics of a strong woman; one who can change the world, from community leader to world leader. First, I shared with her a few statistics on women, which included:

  • Sixty-six percent of the world’s work falls on women’s shoulders, yet they earn only 10% of the world’s income.
  •  If women were given the same access to resources that men have, they could increase yields on their farms by 20-30%.
  • Hunger and poverty are about power and inequality, and women and girls face the biggest inequalities of all.

I followed up the statistics with a few questions.  Here are my daughter’s answers about IWD, the characteristics of women who change the world, and what type of women have the power and influence to help fight poverty.

1. What are the characteristics of a woman who makes a difference; whether she’s a leader in her community or a global role model?

These women are responsible and reliable, and I also think they are people who care. It’s a woman who wants to do something to make a change, whether it’s recycling water bottles or ending world hunger. She is open-minded and doesn’t let any adversity get in her way.  I believe any woman, in her own way, can be a strong woman. It’s not hard at all, because you don’t have to tackle world hunger alone or be a billionaire with a talk show. Every good mom in the world is a role model.  The way to bring this strength out is to overcome challenges; if adversity is in your face and people don’t expect much, it makes it even more of a motivation to show you can do anything!

2. When you think of women who have made a difference around the world, who is the first to come to your mind and what do you like about her?

The woman who immediately comes to mind is Eleanor Roosevelt.  I think Eleanor Roosevelt was a really influential woman. FDR couldn’t walk because of his Polio and she would go around, and take care of his affairs. She acted as his “eyes and ears” and this wasn’t typical for women to do, and it wasn’t a way for a woman to act in the 30s and 40s.  She also did a great deal to support the civil rights of African Americans. Eleanor Roosevelt’s influence was not expected at this point in history, and her strength as a woman is something I greatly admire.

3. What do you think is the best way to get younger women to participate in a movement to help women who face hunger and poverty around the world?

When you’re younger you’re still a little sheltered. So, the best way to get people interested, and to also get them involved, is to keep them informed.  Do it on a level where they think they can actually make a difference.  You have to make the cause closer to “home.”  If there are women in poverty, they have to be connected closer to where they live.  It has to be reduced to a smaller scale, otherwise they won’t feel as if they can make a difference, or it will scare them off.  Young people definitely care, it’s just sometimes these situations feel very remote, and we don’t know how to approach the situation in order to help.  Keep it local to help an issue on a larger scale.  Of course, use the Internet, which is a great resource for causes, you learn so much more.

The Oxfam America’s International Women’s campaign is trying to get people to join in the cause.  If you want to participate, here are some ways to get involved:

  • Send one of their IWD eCards to a woman you admire and think has made a difference (or several!)
  • Give a personalized IWD award to a woman  – this is really neat, IMHO, because you can just type in the name, your name & date, save as a PDF/JPG & publish to your blog.
  • Write a post asking people to do one or both of the above, especially focusing on giving women a voice, since that’s a large part of what Oxfam America does, particularly in developing countries – ideally the post would publish sometime between March 1 & March 8 (not later than that, since 3/8 is IWD). Here is an info document/sample post if it makes it any easier (click the link under “Bloggers” on that page).

I hope you will join Oxfam America’s International Women’s Day, and recognize a woman who is making a difference.

Transforming Social Good into Social Responsibility

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A Guest Post By Harrison Kratz

Regardless of what walk of life you are from or what your career is, the holiday season brings up the same topics of conversation… Gift shopping, how early is too early for Christmas music, and what you are doing to give back this year. In PR, Marketing, and Social Media, that last part has slightly evolved in recent years as giving back is now synonymous with the term social good.

Social good is definitely a sexy term for philanthropy and has really opened up consumers and brands’ minds about how they can utilize technology and social media to inflict positive change in the world.

I am happy to be apart of this movement of social good, having founded Tweet Drive – a campaign where I’ve been lucky enough to build a great community of those who are dedicated to giving underprivileged children around the world the holiday they deserve.

As happy as I am to see many similar campaigns being put together by people and brands throughout the year, I still think we have a long way to go. Social good is a noble practice, but to me its not just something those in social media can try out, it should be seen as a social responsibility.

So many of us have been able to reap the benefits of social media, smartphones, iPads, etc. while others around the world continue to suffer – even in the United States. Before these tools were available, it was very difficult for us to create positive change and directly help those in need in the furthest corners of the world. Donations could only go so far.

Since the disaster in Haiti in January, 2010 we have seen the power that social media users can have on giving back and helping those in need. It extends our reach to help those we didn’t have access to previously, as well as allowing us to build global communities around these efforts and causes. In short – that is power.

And as we all learned from Spiderman, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

These tools are a privilege and we all have to understand that using these powers for good shouldn’t be an option, but a responsibility. I started small with a toy drive in my hometown back in 2009 before I fully understood social media and its advantages. In 2010, I realized that I could do so much more, so I did. Now, the Tweet Drive will be present in over 50 cities around the world and should expect over 4,000 collected toys by years end.

Do I have a blast putting this together? Yes. Is it stressful sometimes? Absolutely. But none of that matters in the end because this is a responsibility that I have. Social media has opened up a world of opportunities for me, and I can’t forget that.

So whether you advocate for Twestival, Movember, the USA for UNHCR’s Blue Key Campaign, or #TeamMeg – I hope you join me in transforming social good into a social responsibility.

Oh, and Happy Holidays J

Harrison Kratz is the Founder of the global social good initiative, Tweet Drive and the Community Manager at MBA@UNC, the new Online MBA program at the University of North Carolina Feel free to connect with him on Twitter, @KratzPR!

 

Giving Back to #PR & #Marketing & Then Paying it Forward

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When you give back, you hope it gets paid forward.

I had an idea a couple of weeks ago I thought would be great to test during the Holiday season.  It’s an experiment in giving back and then paying it forward. The Holiday season fosters good will and nothing feels better then to selflessly give to those who need assistance.  I thought long and hard about my own giving over the last 11 months in 2011.  One of the best ways that I gave back was to mentor colleagues and students in different ways, from answering questions through email and informal telephone interviews to advice via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and reviewing resumes.

I enjoy helping my peers, and giving back is the one thing we can all do to increase the learning in our own communities. I know so many colleagues who are willing to help others and they do it with a smile.  I’m really proud of the communities and the bonds we are building together.  But, what I’m focusing on in my Holiday experiment is the “thank you” part. So many people will sincerely thank me and say, “If I can ever do anything for you, please let me know.” In other cases, I’ve received cards, gifts, magazines, and books (of course, always from the goodness of the person’s heart, as I would never expect this type of elaborate thank you).

However, what would you think if I said, “You can thank me by paying it forward?”  Or, what if I pointed you in a direction to help people who are less fortunate?  My experiment over the next few months, in the spirit of Holiday giving, is to tell all of my PR and marketing friends that I’m happy to assist, but now I need you to pay it forward to someone who needs help. I would love to see the “thank you” go toward the purchase of a $5.00 #BlueKey to support the USA for UNHCR effort to help over 40 million displaced refugees worldwide.   Perhaps your thank you to me could be to purchase a small gift for a young child or for you to make a donation to Tweet Drive 2011 or #TeamMeg. You may have a favorite charity of your own to support, and when you mentor a peer, you will want him/her to pay it forward to your organization of choice. My Holiday wish is for every “thank you” to be paid forward to someone else.

It’s the Holidays and I hope my experiment will spread more good will to those who truly need our help.  So, think about it, will you help to pay it forward?

 

#BlueKey Tweetathon Helps to Raise Awareness of Growing World Displacement Crisis

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Because this week is the #PRStudChat ‘Social Good’ session, I wanted to share information about another event for a really good cause.  The #BlueKey Tweetathon is a Twitter event beginning today at 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. ET, to help support the USA for UNHCR’s campaign to raise awareness about the refugee crisis and to urge Americans to speak out for refugees.

As a Blue Key Champion, I’m happy to take part in a program that will use Twitter to increase knowledge about a serious issue that needs attention.  Did you know that at the end of 2009, approximately 43.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide?  This is the highest number of people uprooted by conflict and persecution since the mid-1990s.

The needs of refugees continue to grow worldwide.  According to the UN Refugee Agency’s Global Trends Report many of those uprooted by conflict within their own country grew by 4 percent to 27.1 million, which is largely the result of persistent conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia. In addition, there are an estimated 26 million people (which breaks down to approximately 10.4 million refugees and about 15.6 million internally displaced persons) who were receiving protection or assistance from the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), an increase of one million people over 2008.  Lastly, among the large number of people displaced by conflict, women and girls represented 47 percent of all refugees and asylum seekers.

If you’d like to get involved, you can join the #BlueKey Tweetathon to raise awareness by following the hashtag on Twitter, as well as the @UNRefugeeAgency handle.  In addition, there are many other Blue Key Champions to follow.  You can check out the participating champions on the UN Refugees Facebook page.  I’m especially excited that “Kite Runner” author Khaled Hosseini’s wife, Roya, will be joining the Tweetathon at 10:00 a.m. Pacific/1:00 p.m. ET.

You can also get the word out about the USA for UNHCR campaign with a few simple tweets:

  • For just $5, your #BlueKey could help @UNRefugeeAgency save a life. Get your key today: http://ow.ly/5d4VC
  • Did you know that there are more than 43 million refugees worldwide?http://ow.ly/5d54i Your $5 #BlueKey could open a new door for them.
  • “Kite Runner” author Khaled Hosseini says “anyone can be a refugee” http://ow.ly/5d59P Your $5 #BlueKey could help change that. Get it today!

I hope you will join in the USA for UNHCR #BlueKey Tweetathon to help spread the word about the refugee crisis, and together through our Twitter communities, we can make a difference.

Get your Blue Key today!

 

 

#PRStudChat Announcement: Join Us For A Panel Session on Social Good

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Back in 2009, a Dartmouth study revealed that the largest not-for-profit organizations were outpacing corporations and academic institutions in social media adoption.  Today, more not-for-profits are finding value through targeted social media outreach and fundraising.  With so many organizations moving toward social media communication, we thought the topic of Social Good would not only educate but also demonstrate to our community how non-profits are making a difference through their social interactions.

The #PRStudChat June 15th session at 8:30 p.m. ET will focus on Social Good. Joining us that night will be a panel of special guests, all communications professionals, working with non-profit organizations from awareness to fundraising.

It is our pleasure to announce the #PRStudChat panelists:

Shonali Burke:

Shonali Burke is the IABC-accredited, award-winning principal of Shonali Burke Consulting, which specializes in “integrated communication to the nth degree.” In other words, she helps you turn your corporate codswallop into community cool. She did this at various agencies, at the ASPCA, where she instituted their award-winning measurement program, and she can do this for you. But only if you ask. Nicely.

In 2007, PRWeek recognized Shonali as one of the “top 40 under 40” PR professionals in the US, which she is quite pleased to keep reminding you about and never mind her grey hairs. More recently, she’s been named one of 100 PR pros worth following on Twitter by Valeria Maltoni aka Conversation Agent, and one of 25 Women That Rock Social Media by TopRank. She blogs at Waxing UnLyrical, under the watchful eyes of Chuck, Suzy Q. and Lola, her three rescue dogs. Her long-suffering husband has accepted that Shonali can most often be found on Twitter.

Heather Whaling:

As president of Geben Communication, Heather Whaling helps businesses develop and implement traditional and digital PR strategies. Named one of the top 30 PR pros to follow on Twitter, Heather has been quoted in Inc Magazine, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and Mashable about technology’s impact on communication and business. She also co-moderates PR 2.0 Chat (#pr20chat on Twitter), a weekly discussion about PR and social media. Connect with her on her blog (http://www.prTini.com), Twitter, @prTini or via email (heather@gebencommunication.com).

Heather was one of five women bloggers recently selected to visit Haiti earlier this year as part of a blogger outreach tour in support of Fairwinds Trading Heart of Haiti program.

Heather’s company, Geben Communication, focuses on telling a story … communicating the right message to the right audience … influencing public perception. Just as important, we believe in using our platform for good. In fact, the word geben means “to give” in German. Having worked with 30+ nonprofits, Heather believes in the power of these organizations. That’s why for every new client Geben signs, we’re committed to making a donation to a deserving cause.

Melissa Jones

Melissa Jones graduated from Rowan University with a degree in Communications, concentration in Public Relations.  She first got involved in social media while still in college; she volunteered her time at Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a nonprofit organization for childhood cancer.  She spent her time at ALSF simply building their online presence; communicating with existing supporters while also discovering ways to garner new supporters.  She is now working full-time at ALSF as their Social Media Specialist.

We hope you will join us on June 15th at 8:30 p.m. ET to discuss Social Good and to chat with our panel of special guests.  Of course, if you have any questions you would like to ask the panel, please feel free to post them in our LinkedIn Discussion Group.  Hope to “see” you on the 15th!

A Little More About PRStudChat:

It began with a simple question asked by Angela Hernandez, then President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). “Is PR Right for me?” A follow up blog post by PR 2.0 expert Deirdre Breakenridge inspired a series of direct messages on Twitter between Breakenridge and fellow PR industry pro, Valerie Simon. This was an important question and one that should be explored beyond one student or one blog post. Why not build a community to help students across the country, and even the globe, learn from the experience and perspective of industry professionals… A community where everyone can learn and grow together. Read more

 

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