The first Tweet came about 1 minute after the quake with a tsunami warning for the Gowanus Canal. We were perplexed. I knew the Gowanus Expressway from traffic reports but didn’t know it also was a body of water. And a tsunami? So much for the credibility of Tweets.
Out of curiosity, I searched the Gowanus on Google and found http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gowanus_Canal.

We stayed on Twitter for a while on Tuesday, and we also went to online news . . . and we called our mothers, husbands, kids and friends to find out if others felt what we did. They did – in Tenafly, Fair Lawn and Manchester, New Jersey; the personal first-hand reports were definite proof that the event was bigger than our office. Then, we turned on News 12. We kept it on the rest of the day as we all were somewhat unnerved; we wanted local news, and getting back to work just didn’t feel like business as usual.

On Wednesday, I turned on the Weather Channel as I always do. The meteorologists were tracking Hurricane Irene and highlighted topics from Twitter as part of their new social partnership. (I found myself impatient as I wanted to see the track of the storm.)
Broadcast news also used Tweets and Facebook posts, bringing a combination of local, regional, national and international perspective to their reports.

As a public relations professional, I drew three conclusions from the experiences of the earthquake: First: Social media is a valuable immediate news source, although not the last word and not always credible. Second: Traditional media sources continue to embrace social media, testing new ways to integrate these evolving sources of opinion and fact into their medium. Third: multi-tasking is fun.
And so, my preference for news is multiple screens and sources, like Tuesday, when one staff member was on Twitter, another on Facebook, several on the phones and one watching TV. It was a true multi-media moment at Caryl Communications.

Today, many programs like Constant Contact (which is the program we use), as well as other e-mail systems, enable you to easily manage a list and send messages to a target audience. Posting a link through any e-mail program will allow the reader to open the article, which usually remains posted online with an active URL for several days or more. And since you are accessing the original media source with the URL, there is no need to obtain permission, as you are not reproducing the article in any form.

Most daily newspapers keep a link up for a week or longer. After the article is removed by the publisher and replaced, the original link often will lead the reader to a media archive, many of which remain on line for extended periods, even as much as a year or more.

To maximize interest from your readers, select news clips that position your firm in an authoritative position and contain updates regarding your industry. You can explain a bit about the piece in your own email.

Develop a timely method for disseminating news about your company by drafting a template and modifying it based on the specific news item you are sending. Paste the URL into your own e-mail message to create a simple e-mail blast that highlights your Good News!

While no panelist at either program predicted a robust turnaround this year, several highlighted some brightening signs. One IOREBA speaker may have said it best when he forecasted a “sideways year” but also described an increasing number of corporations starting to talk about long-term objectives and real estate for the future.

Simply put – participants at both events “worked the rooms” and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. Their common professional thread was real estate as they confronted the economic realities of 2010 together.

While social networking has its place, there’s still nothing quite like being out with people, especially some you’ve known for decades. I guess it’s the human contact, the camaraderie and encouragement, that helps you move forward into an uncertain economy together and derive a feeling of optimism just from the energy of being there.

Some firms that recognize the power of PR but want to cut costs in the current recession may decide to try to bring it in-house as their business has slowed. The mistake in this reasoning is it diverts the professionals from their first order of business and dilutes their effectiveness in their work and in their PR results.

Navigating the current ever-changing landscape of PR, incorporating strategic integrated activities, and achieving measurable results ultimately requires a tremendous time investment. It is far better to negotiate fees now with your current agency or look for a more reasonable firm that is willing to work in the recession to help you achieve exposure into the recovery and then grow from there.

The goal is to use a PR agency to provide expertise and creativity to refine and achieve your immediate and long-range business goals. PR integrates with other marketing disciplines and because of the credible nature of the news industry, media exposure is integral to any campaign. By highlighting a company’s core competencies, a well-planned PR program will distinguish your organization from the competition and increase credibility for your products or services.

The client’s primary responsibility is to work candidly and confidentially with the agency to define their goals, business activities, strengths, weaknesses and key people.

The agency’s job is to support its marketing goals and determine the real news, trends and activities that are appropriate for promotion through public relations. The agency then develops themes and story concepts and generates compelling copy in their work with the media. In essence, the public relations professionals is a reporter for clients, who is always ready to leverage real news and reach direct consumers and can prospect audiences, and help the client become a valuable resource for diverse media outlets.

“The medium is the message” . . . Marshall McLuhan

I was encouraged, professionally and personally, by the WSJ’s article on January 4, 2010 outlining positive signs for the print news industry (Ad Influx Brightens Hopes for Newspapers, Magazines).

The importance of the news media for public relations practioners is obvious, especially those that focus on media placements.  As a result, navigating the changing landscape of the print industry has presented new challenges as well as opportunities for PR firms.

During 2009, recessionary pressures and the proliferation of the Internet presented a real threat to the future of many publications. The loss of ad revenues and declining circulations made even the most trustworthy publications an endangered species as generations of online readers turned to the Internet as their first source of news.

In fact, on the news side, just an hour after the 7.0 Earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, most of the first news updates communicated to traditional news agencies and broadcast media seemed to arrive through Twitter.

As a result, the debate continues – the immediacy of broadcast is less threatened by new media,  but the question remains — will the print industry survive?

As a personal reaction, during recent vacation time, I enjoyed the pleasure rather than the pressure of reading the newspaper, waking slowly to coffee and the NYT:  Perhaps it was the artistically designed layouts in print — or the tactile experience of turning the pages, folding the paper, separating the sections and seeing the whole as well as the parts. Print offers a feeling and perspective that can’t be duplicated by a rigid computer serving as the medium for the Internet and for reading news. 

Therefore, I don’t believe the print industry will become extinct, even if it evolves into a niche medium for those who want to feel what they read. Because as McLuhan said, “the medium is the message,” and while a computer laptop may heat up your lap, it rarely warms the heart.