Author Archive
Google Goggles, The New Search
Posted by: | CommentsAndroid phone users got a cool new way to search thanks to Google’s release of Google Goggles on Monday. The application uses image recognition, through photos you take with the phone or items you point the camera at, to search for that item and pull Google search results.
Want to read the Amazon.com reviews of a book you’re purchasing? Take a snapshot and put on your “Goggles.” Debating what year the Sears Tower was built? Snap it, “goggle” it and get your answer.
While Google is still fine-tuning the program to increase its recognition of less concrete images, such as food and everyday objects like strollers, the vastness of what can already be searched is incredible. One thing to consider, however, is how an app like this will impact SEO. Will sites need to begin indexing keywords and images to maximize search results?
And if you have an iPhone, well you are out of luck.
The Silver Spikes!
Posted by: | CommentsWe worked this week on preparing three great entries into this year’s PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) Sierra Nevada Chapter Silver Spike Awards. It’s a great exercise for us as a team, forcing us to step back from the work we’ve been so close to this past year and really look at our strategies, goals, tactics and outcomes for various clients. 
From this we’ll be more prepared to make recommendations for the coming year and adjust our strategies and tactics as needed to stay at the top of our game.
While I’d like to think that all of our work deserves an award for some reason or another, in the end our true reward is client satisfaction.
Wow…What a Summer
Posted by: | CommentsThe summer of 2009 will go down in memory as the fastest summer on record, having passed in what seems like the blink of any eye. In just two months, July and August, I attended more events than I normally would in a year, all thanks to our wonderful clients and their phenomenal programming. I was working at a few events, but for the most part I was enjoying live music, theater, dance and even meteor showers at dawn.
My must-do events this summer included Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, “Broadway Night” at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet at Artown and Tommy Castro at the Reno-Tahoe Blues Fest. But amongst the planned activities a few more crept in, like Salsa Celtica during Artown’s World Music Series. The performance was great, but the experience was unforgettable, picnicking in the park with a new friend, watching couples salsa dance on the sidewalk, seeing cultures merge together through music and audience interaction. I also witnessed a bit of the Perseids meteor shower before the sun bathed the sky in shades of pink and gold during an early morning news interview at Rancho San Rafael Park, something I would never have risen for if not for work.
It’s one thing to check items off of an activities “to-do list” and quite another to just get out and experience life. This summer art was my catalyst for the latter, and I couldn’t be more grateful to my career and clients for having provided that opportunity. I’ve always believed that life becomes more saturated when you surround yourself with art—the sun shines brighter, nature’s colors are more vibrant and crickets chirp louder. Now I’m convinced.
Just Get Writing
Posted by: | CommentsBlog topics are all around us, you just need to pluck an idea and write a few sentences. Easy enough, right? Maybe not.
In a recent client meeting I reminded the staff that there’s always something they can blog about. I also noted that creating content for their blog was important to keeping readers and drawing in new ones. The staff often shares anecdotes about projects they’re working on interactions they’ve had, and I recommend writing a few short paragraphs and sending it in to post.
The problem is I’m having my own blogging dry spell. I’m reading others’ blogs more so than I ever have before and working on a good variety of projects, both of which should provide some fodder for a few lines of text. Nope.
So here I am, writing a blog post about having nothing to say in a blog post and considering myself a hypocrite for telling the clients that they had to get writing. Maybe it’s not so easy to just pick a topic and write. Some clients aren’t writers, which is why they hire us to do their writing for them. Maybe it’s a lack of confidence that what you have to say matters to anyone else. I’ve definitely had that feeling before, wondering if what I have to say on a personal level matters to others. The truth is, if it matters to you, it’s got to matter to someone else. And if you don’t think you’re a good writer, well, send your post to us, we’ll edit it and post it online.
Personal + Professional = Enthusiasm that Delivers
Posted by: | CommentsA recent exchange on Twitter got me to thinking, when you become a public relations professional do you lose independence and credibility when making recommendations or talking about things you like? I’ll start with the exchange so you get my drift:
A twitter user is looking for the best driving route from Point A to Point B. A discussion begins with another user noting that flying is best because the drive is a bore. I respond noting all of the beauty along the drive. The other counters my recommendation because I happen to work with several tourism clients that are along the route.
Sure, I do have clients along the route, but I’ve also driven it many times when my husband was living at Point A and I was at B. We’ve driven it on vacations since then, and yes, I’ve driven it for work. And every single time it’s been fascinating. And I’m entitled to this opinion, whether it aligns with my goals at work or not.
I have yet to come across a client that I’m not truly excited about. That’s because we believe in our clients and are genuinely interested in them—who they are, what they do, what they’re about. We don’t just take on clients because it’s business. We take them on because we WANT to. Then we immerse ourselves, learning as much as possible about them. We visit their location, attend their events or test their products. I like to think that our work reflects that enthusiasm.
Often that enthusiasm spills over into our personal lives (or stems from it). But if I’m passionate about something, I’ll talk about it, on my own time and in my own space, regardless of whether they’re a client. I’m an independent with my own likes and dislikes. I’m also a credible, trustworthy and honest person—and public relations professional.
Old school tools – they’re still effective
Posted by: | CommentsWe often times talk (a lot) about the impact of social media on what we’re doing in public relations and how it’s leading the way for the future of communications. But there are still a lot of cool tools that have been around for a long time that are effective and provide results. Enter the Media Visit.
Media visits come in all shapes and sizes, from 5-day tours for 25 people to weekend trips for just one journalist. We work on media visits on an ongoing basis for tourism and festival clients bringing the media in to tour the entire region, or just to check out one festival performance. Seeing a location, enjoying its attractions and amenities and just feeling what it’s like to be there can speak volumes about a client’s product that no press release or YouTube video could ever convey.
This week we have a journalist coming in from New York City on a winter tour of Reno-Tahoe. Her 6-day trip (which includes two travel days) has her dining at two of Tahoe’s finest restaurants, skiing two days at premier Tahoe ski resorts, dog sledding, snowmobiling, touring Reno’s arts and culture scene and getting an exclusive spa treatment at the area’s newest spa. The trick to a media visit is this: plan it as if it’s your vacation. If you treat it strictly as a sales opportunity for your product (using site tours, meetings or demonstrations to fill your itinerary) then you’re doing yourself, your product and the media person a disservice.
It’s a whirlwind trip for sure, but the thing is if I could’ve planned a vacation to Reno-Tahoe this is the itinerary I would choose. And it’s an itinerary full of activities her readers and viewers might choose too. That means the potential for great coverage and a pleased journalist who’ll remember Reno-Tahoe the next time winter travel enters the discussion.
I Get Paid to do This?
Posted by: | CommentsMy husband always says there’s a reason why so many people want to be in public relations and marketing: because it’s fun. And that’s true if you wind up working on clients that you enjoy. Just today I got to research restaurants and summer activities at ski resorts – the former for planning a media visit and the latter for pitching a writer. I listen to music and surf YouTube so I can enrich blog posts and understand what I’m writing about in event releases. This week I’m even heading to Reno eNVy to film their t-shirt making process for a client so we can post it to the blog. How cool is that?
Don’t get me wrong there are days when it’s really tough. We can put in long hours nitpicking every last detail of a 25-person, 5-day tour of Reno-Tahoe. We wake up at the crack of dawn to drive artists to a TV station for interviews. We get back press releases that we’ve slaved over with so many edits a re-write is often the only option. And yes, the media do ignore us sometimes. But if you weigh all of these things against all of the fun things we also get to do, they’re really not that bad. Secretly, I even like those early morning TV interviews!
Storytellers
Posted by: | CommentsWhen people ask me what I do and I say I’m in public relations I get mixed response. Some people think I’m a professional socialite that throws parties for clients ala Samantha on “Sex and the City.” Others think I sit at my desk all day writing press releases and sending them out to media outlets. Then there are those that don’t even venture to guess what’s in a day’s work for me. To be honest, sometimes we do throw parties, or more accurately, plan a variety of events. And yes, we write press releases and send them out to the media to gain news coverage for clients. But the true heart of what we do is storytelling.
