May 2009

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Make It Easy: The Pitfalls of Symbols

May 18, 2009 | No comments

I want to make it easy for folks to connect with me. That’s the reason I’m on Twitter, Facebook, carry a Blackjack, check emails everywhere I go, text and IM. This week I realized that I had inadvertently thrown out a couple of stumbling blocks for my audiences. For example, that the cool little symbol I used in my company name was actually a problem for online searches. Yikes! So I changed it. RobinTracy is now Robin Tracy. It’s a bit of a win/win because it more closely aligns with my other Web properties: http://www.robintracy.com/ and Twitter @RobinTracyPR. My Facebook business page uses that symbol. If you search groups for Robin Tracy PR you won’t find me (’cause who would know how to enter that symbol? Ugh!). I’ve learned that the business name cannot be changed, either. So, my only recourse here is to add a new business page and then ask my fans to join the new group.

Similarly, my email signature line offered up a little glitch for folks who office remotely with hand-held devices. A friend of mine pointed out that her Blackberry didn’t recognize my phone number, listed as 770/401-8753. In other words, she had to manually dial me up rather than simply clicking on the number. The forward slash in the area code was a problem. Yikes, again! My newly updated signature line uses the traditional format (770) 401-8753.

These are great reminders to really think about the usability of everything that represents you and your brand. Make it easy for folks to find you and then contact you.

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WOW! CrowdSPRING & Crisis Management

May 15, 2009 | No comments

A while back I was turned onto the creative services offered by CrowdSPRING. I signed up for an account and have been following them ever since. I found/find their model fascinating–and apparently so did many, many folks. So many, in fact, that their systems couldn’t handle the growth and volume of traffic.

On Wednesday, May 6 I received an email from the founders Ross Kimbarovsky and Mike Samson acknowledging that the site was having problems and that they were working tirelessly on resolving them. Here’s some of what it said:

“As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve run into a series of technical problems over the past 7-10 days. Because of that, we wanted to take a break from our normal newsletter to bring you a personal message from both of us. So let us start by stating it as plainly as we can: we’re sorry.

There’s no way to sugar coat it – the site’s performance as of late has been poor. We’ve failed to provide you the crowdSPRING experience you’ve learned to love and we are both disappointed and humbled as a result. Please rest assured that we’re aware of these problems, and we are doing our very best to fix them promptly. Everyone at crowdSPRING is focused on these issues and we won’t rest until we have them resolved. Period.”

Wow–that’s just plain powerful! I wish our politicians could be so transparent, honest and authentic. They ended the message with this commitment:

“We’ll give you an update within the next 48 hours on where things stand…We consider everyone who has supported us this first year a friend and it’s never fun to disappoint your friends. You have our personal promise, and the promise of every person who works at crowdSPRING, that we will work tirelessly to make things right and to regain your trust.”

And then on Friday, May 8 the update arrived.

“As promised, we wanted to get back to you with a quick update on the issues we had this week and the progress we’ve made in the last 48 hours. And since we’ve taken up enough of your time this week, we’ll keep it brief: the worst is behind us.

Thanks to the tireless work (and sleepless nights) of our development team, we believe we’ve solved 99% of the issues plaguing us recently….At this point, we can only thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts for your patience and support. And, as usual, don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any issues or questions…”

I’m impressed! This small upstart, only a year old, successfully confronted what could have been a mortal blow to their business. I don’t know if they had ever created a crisis management plan or if anyone consulted with them but, wow! They responded humbly, with honesty and sensitivity. No excuses, no finger pointing, no justifications. And, the apology came with a measurable response.

Kudos Ross and Mike! And, congrats on assembling what must be a fantastic team over there at CrowdSPRING!

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Harnessing the Power of a Trend

May 14, 2009 | No comments

Bizzia blogger Jean Murray’s article “Laid Off? Terminated? Start a Business” is a theme I’ve seen in the news and at home—on the tennis courts with opponents and teammates—quite a bit lately. More and more people that I know, who have lost their jobs, who have become “corporate refugees,” are becoming entrepreneurs. I’m one of those people, too, though I didn’t make a huge career change. When the PR firm I worked for downsized, I simply took my skills and re-packaged them under my own company name offering the same great (and pricey) PR-firm level of service at a much more affordable price point.

Now Grasshopper a company that offers phone number solutions for entrepreneurs has harnessed the power of the entrepreneurial trend in a cool, viral video.

I loved this video because it speaks to me. It feeds and affirms my entrepreneurial spirit. But even better, I BELIEVE that grasshopper gets it. Not just from their business perspective, but from mine. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how it should be done.

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The Educated Client–Part 2

May 13, 2009 | No comments

Todd Defren, social media guru and one of the founders of Shift Communications has a top-quality blog: PR Squared. Under the aptly titled “Jedi Training” tab, he has compiled a list of suggested reading for PR 2.0 tactics. If you are considering investing any of your resources–time, energy or money–into the world of social media marketing, you’ll want to first invest some time researching.

Defren’s list is a great place to start.
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Social Media: An Informed Client is the Best Client

May 11, 2009 | No comments

The world of social media changes CONSTANTLY and keeping up with it can be a full-time job. Even so, it’s imperative that business owners who hope to harness the power of social media become familiar with the basics of how it works–and how it doesn’t work. Especially when an outside consultant, such as myself, is involved. Why? Having a basic understanding of all components of your public relations efforts ensures that you are an active participant–rather than a passive onlooker–when important decisions about allocation of your limited resources are made.

So, where to start?

Bizzia contributor by Kim Beasley complied a good list of article that feature how business owners are using Twitter.

Enjoy and be empowered.

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Cool Tidbits

May 7, 2009 | No comments

I’m currently working on a book project for Louisiana author Vicki Allen, who recently released her fourth novel, Drink One To Me Christian Bennett. Of course we are using a number of social media options to promote the book, such as Facebook and Twitter, and now, one that I just discovered yesterday on LinkedIn. On my LinkedIn profile, I can introduce people in my network to a book that I’m reading or have read.

This cool little Reading List application by Amazon automatically pulls over the art and the information about the author. All you need to do is put in your comments and BOOM, you’re done.

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Color Matters, Too.

May 6, 2009


A January 2009 article written by Corey Blake for Fast Company says: “Readers take about two seconds to determine if they’re interested and then they either give you two more seconds to impress them further, or they move onto something else. When it comes to the words you choose, you have to be so intentional!”

This is so true. But another component to communicating effectively is graphics and color. Typically, when developing a new logo and/or brand look, we research other sites, logos, etc. to compare styles and color schemes. To my knowledge, there has never been a really efficient way to do this.

Until now! This morning’s Twitter feed introduced me to Colorgorize, a site that allows us to search and analyze websites by color schemes. Cool!

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Be the Go-To Source for Media

May 4, 2009 | No comments

Effective EARNED media efforts require a newsworthy angle. Sometimes a media relations campaign can be launched around the news of the day. For example, a company that produces flu vaccines could leverage the current media frenzy surrounding the Swine flu.

Other times you may need to “make news.” One great way to do this is by conducting a Harris Interactive poll that provides an interesting peek into societal perceptions or trends. The polls are relatively inexpensive–as little as $2,000–but provide great cache and respected results.

Developing a poll that can be conducted ANNUALLY provides a platform to establish your company as the leader in its field–the go-to source for the data being gathered. But best of all, it provides a regularly scheduled opportunity to interact with media and your key audiences.

Last week, Harris Interactive released the results of its own 10th Annual Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient® (RQ®) Study, a poll that Harris developed to build and sustain its position as a leader in custom market research.

An example of a much smaller, but very effective poll conducted jointly by two small but growing companies leveraged July’s designation of “Sandwich Generation Month.” The results of this poll, plus the use of some existing, solid stats, generated a significant amount of media interest. Should these companies conduct this poll annually, they will “own” this information and become the go-to source for expert commentary on all things related to today’s Sandwich Generation.

What poll data should you own? It should relate directly to the product or service that you provide and think long-term–this is a slow-build effort.

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