Archive for Counselors Academy
Are You Ready to Go Mobile?
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NEW ORLEANS – It’s time to get ready for mobile.
During a breakout session during the Counselor’s Academy conference this week, “Mobilizing Your Firm for a Smartphone World,” presenters Linda W. Cohen, APR, CEO of The Caliber Group, Inc., and Michael Barber, director of digital strategy, Cohn Marketing, shared the following eye-opener facts and insights:
- By June 2012 (next month!) more people will read email on their mobile devices than on laptops or the computers at their offices or at home. No longer are they tethered to the stationary computer work-stations of the past;
- In 2012, a total of 58 percent of consumers will buy something using their mobile device;
- By 2013, half of the internet traffic to your site will be via people on their mobile devices;
- By 2015, more people will access the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs or other wired computers;
- To accommodate and promote all of this, the marketing spend has flipped as budgets for mobile now dominate social. Now is the time to plan your mobile marketing strategy, from providing apps to converting your website so people can access your information when they need it.
If you haven’t done so already, grab an iPhone or Android and visit your company’s website. Like what you see? Ready or not that’s the first impression you’re already offering a significant percentage of visitors to your site.
Talking PR and Social Media in New Orleans
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NEW ORLEANS — I’m in Louisiana for the next few days with members of the Counselors Academy, a section of the Public Relations Society of America for owners and principals of public relations agencies. As usual, they have a great lineup of speakers and I’ll be sharing links and nuggets of information from some of the sessions.
With all the talk about social media (and all the so-called experts in the latest tools and tactics), speaker Jay Baer, president of Convince & Convert, delivered this reminder: “The goal isn’t to be good at social media…the goal is to be good at business because of social media.”
That’s a point worth thinking about as we take steps to weave social media into our routines which, by the way, need to be just that – part of our days: “There’s no magic answer to how much time to devote to social media,” he said. “You must commit to doing it regularly versus doing it in-depth. Speed and response time is important so be first, fast and mobile. A minute here, a minute there in the tiny gaps in the day.”
Jay also shared why your online/social presence – in addition to using traditional channels – is so important. A Google study (see the Zero Moment of Truth) shows that in 2010 people needed 5.3 pieces of information to make a purchase decision. In 2011, they sought out an average of 10.4 sources of information, including blogs, websites and social networks, before they decided. “When we’re almost ready to buy, that’s when we call,” Baer said.
“When we want to make a purchase decision, we research first.” So in addition to making sure your sales information is accessible and accurate, be sure that whoever answers that call is ready, because that’s an educated and motivated customer ready to talk!
A Few PR and Social Media Highlights from Asheville
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ASHEVILLE, N.C. — I just returned from the annual PRSA Counselors Academy conference, held this year at the Grove Park Inn (left), where President Obama and the First Lady spent a get-away weekend in April (in the Vanderbilt Wing, I might add, not too far from the “Cyd Charisse Room,” where I had the pleasure of staying).
But enough about me, what about social media, the topic of that kept everyone buzzing and tweeting?
Several esteemed counselors have offered their blog summaries, here and here (and search #CAPRSA on Twitter), so rather than duplicate their commentary, I’ll weigh in with a few thoughts and key quotes that, at least for me, summarized what I heard:
Amber Naslund of Radian6 had a great quote one morning, summarizing the unnecessary obsession with all the new social media tools: “Dudes, it’s only communications.” So why so much obsession with the “tubes,” or tools for communications, she asked. Were we like this when the fax machine was unveiled? Not long ago Yahoo and MySpace were “it,” so stay focused on the principles of PR and communications and not so much on the “tubes.”
Also from Amber, a good definition of social media: “Social media is the new phone, so listening is the new way of answering the phone.” It’s not a new communications channel, as some communicators are hoping for; it’s more of a customer service function.
Brian Solis, just in from Cannes and who was kind enough to sign my copy of his new book, Engage, talked about the inevitability of change that is sweeping the PR industry. Those in PR who live exclusively for the next press release are simply not going to last!
I also liked one of Brian’s quotes: “In brevity, there is clarity, and in clarity there is opportunity…better yet, offer it in 120 characters to leave room for a re-tweet.”
There were more than a few “you-had-to-be-there moments,” but I’ll still mention my favorites: Elise Mitchell’s riveting presentation on her Arkansas agency’s – and her personal – success story; Darryl Salerno’s fourth annual “English as a First Language” presentation/quiz; the presence of College of Charleston PR students with executive in residence Tom Martin (brilliant move to have the students there); and a memorable presentation on adding social media to the agency services mix by Jay Baer of Convince & Convert with client Indra Gardiner, founder and COO of Bailey Gardiner in San Diego. I guarantee Sawmill clients will benefit from what they said.
I missed last year’s conference in California, but attended the previous (2008) one in Naples, just a few months after I had discovered Twitter and recall demonstrating this new-fangled tool for anyone who asked. What a change when, in Asheville, it almost looked like a bloggers conference with laptops open and live-tweeting going on at every presentation! Thanks, PRSA, for another practical and useful conference, and I hope to see you next year in Las Vegas.
Book Club: Recommended Summer Reading by Members of PRSA's Counselors Academy
Posted by: | CommentsDuring the PRSA Counselors Academy meeting in Naples last month, members attended a different kind of breakout session, called “Book Club.” The panel discussed and reviewed these four titles:
Partners in Command: George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace by Mark Perry
Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing Out of Sync? by Seth Godin
Full Frontal PR: Building Buzz About Your Business, Your Product or You by Richard Laermer, and
The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive by Patrick Lencioni
For mini-reviews and links, visit the Counselors Academy blog, Whatever Suits. How about you? What’s your recommended reading? Right now, I’m reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris.
Six future PR professionals – students at the College of Charleston - recently piled into a van for the ultimate PR road trip to Naples, Fla. for three days of learning about the PR firm business – and blogging the results – during the Counselors Academy Spring Conference.
Under the headline Future Counselors Inspired, student Sarah Gatling began her blog post this way: “Six students. Three days. One unbelievable opportunity.” Sarah and her fellow students served as on-site reporters and photographers to cover not only the sessions, but some of the social activities as well.
Check it out for yourself. Their posts are all here on Whatever Suits, the Counselors Academy blog.
The biggest question, however, is are they up for a road trip next year, when the Counselors Academy holds its conference in Palm Springs, California?
Networking in Naples
Posted by: | CommentsI’m in Naples, Fla., attending the Counselors Academy Spring Conference and can report the weather is nice because I watched a bit of the forecast on local TV this morning, looked out the windows of the beautiful Naples Grande Beach Resort yesterday and stepped 
outside to board a trolley for dinner last night. Yep, the true conference experience. Today I promise I’ll actually venture outside.
Anyway, I’ve met a number of interesting people and attended some great roundtable discussions and breakout sessions, all about communications, PR and agency management. The meeting kicked off with a talk by Peter Blackshaw, co-founder of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and now EVP of Nielsen Online Strategic Solutions. Fellow Counselors Academy member Indra Gardiner, president of Bailey Gardiner Inc. of San Diego, summarizes the presentation on her blog here, while Matt Kucharski of Padilla Speer Beardsley of Minneapolis has a post here.
As for me, I sat in the front row and attempted to live-Twitter the talk for my now-175 followers, an eye-opening experience. Hint: it’s much easier to send fast, live Tweets with a laptop vs. an iPhone. One seat away was Josh Hallett, a.k.a @hyku on Twitter, who Tweeted away with his laptop and even took pix of Blackshaw and uploaded them to Flickr during the talk. If you haven’t done so already, following live Tweets during conferences is a great to to catch the highlights of a speaker’s presentation.
After sessions on agency management and other PR topics, lunch featured a panel discussion with some of the legends in the PR agency scene. Later, I was fortunate enough to be seated at dinner with a few of those legends, including Eric Morgenstern, CEO of Overland Park, Kansas PR firm Morningstar Communications. Astute readers will recall he is author of “Think Excellence, Not Difference: Positioning Strategies for Success,” which we featured in a PR Buzzsaw post earlier this year. Small world, and events such as the Counselors Academy prove it – you just gotta get outside!
