After the Earthquake: A Multi-media Moment

By Caryl Bixon-Gordon
When the earthquake hit on Tuesday in Paramus, New Jersey, like many northeastern residents, I didn’t know what to do. I thought about having our staff stand in doorways as I remembered that advice from an earthquake I experienced in California. But since the shaking had stopped, I decided instead to find out if it was an earthquake, and we all agreed, the quickest source we could access was online. So we opened Twitter.

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.

Leverage Your News to Build Credibility with Customers and Prospects

One of the greatest benefits of PR is news exposure in the media, which builds credibility for your company, services and/or products. To leverage this exposure with your customers and prospects, use online links and email to your audience.

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!

PARAMUS SUNRISE ROTARY PUBLIC RELATIONS: THE FOUR-WAY TEST EMBODIES OUR MESSAGE

At a recent Rotary District 7490 meeting, I was selected as secretary of the Paramus Sunrise Rotary club to speak with members of district clubs about public relations strategies to help spread the word about Rotary, its events and accomplishments. Because of the devotion of Rotary, and its principals, defined by the four-way test, publicizing Rotary activities is as natural as just about every project and the people who make it happen are newsworthy. For those who are not familiar with Rotary, the four-way test states: “Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?” It was these simple statements, all too often forgotten in the pressure of daily life and work that drew me to Rotary.
As a result, my presentation was simple – I outlined the news releases and resulting news clips that we generated to highlight the activities of the Paramus Sunrise club and its members. The club is very involved in giving and in “living” the four-way test, so our job is simple: We use photos from all events with short copy since “a well-taken photograph” goes such a long way to encourage your story to be published.
The Paramus Sunrise Rotary club was chartered in June 2008. Since its inception, the group has donated to Theo’s Work, Children’s Aid and Family Services, Freedom Walk Kids of America, Turn a Frown Around Foundation, Pony Power and the Rotary Paul Harris Foundation. In addition, the group’s first annual fashion show in May 2009 raised more than $10,000 for Rotary’s Gift of Life, which afforded Lacy-Ann, a sick child from Jamaica, the opportunity to travel to the U.S. for life-saving heart surgery. It is a pleasure to be involved and do what we can to promote the valuable work of this group and the entire Rotary organization.

Active Networking is Encouraging Sign at Recent IOREBA and NAIOP Events

Two annual real estate events in January provided encouraging signs of activity for the start of 2010. IOREBA’s Urban Developer’s Night in Newark and NAIOP New Jersey’s Real Estate Forecast in Short Hills both attracted record numbers of participants and an unusually high level of energy considering the woes of the past year. Brokers, developers, architects, attorneys, accountants and other commercial real estate professionals compared notes and shared stories as they networked and seemed thankful that 2009 had ended and they had survived.

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.

Good News Makes Headlines

Caryl Communications is introducing our new blog featuring views, news and updates on our clients and our industry.  We have brand new offices at 40 Eisenhower Drive in Paramus — a new address but our same phone number, website and email (201-796-7788, www.caryl.com, caryl@caryl.com). 

Please check out our home page news room.  And a note about PR today:  I have never seen a better time than now for businesses to leverage public relations as a primary marketing tool. Because in this difficult economy, good news makes headlines.

I welcome your questions and look forward to staying active, letting you know what we are up to and, better yet, what our clients are doing.