Name: Debbie Friez
Email:
Bio: Here at BurrellesLuce I manage the company’s relationships with many of its largest clients. I currently co-chair the professional development committee for the National Capital Chapter of PRSA and vice president for Washington Women in Public Relations. I am also a member of the International Association of Business Communicators and the Washington, DC, chapter of The Association for Women in Communication. If there is one thing that most people should know about me, it is that I am a diehard hockey fan and enjoy the show, Lost. Twitter: @dfriez; Facebook: BurrellesLuce; LinkedIn: dfriez
Posts by Debbie Friez:
- Six Tips for Using Google+ Now, on Spin Sucks, by Gini Dietrich outlines the basics for getting started on the platform. Of course, you will need to join, either via a friend’s invite or directly on Google+, during the network’s open registration period, first!
- Claire Celsi, The Public Relations Princess, posted, Google+ What’s in it for Me?, a post listing some of the unique features to check-out.
- Listen to Eric Schwartzman’s interview with Jay Baer, in which they ask, “Why Use Google+?” You can find it at his website, On the Record Podcast.
- Google+ is still in beta, so Launch Media Services gives us The Google+ Punch List (21 items Google Must Add to Plus).
- Does AP Style Matter in 140 Characters? This was the question posed by Whitney Jones, a guest blogger on Communications Conversations. PR folks are trained to use AP style, but is it always correct for all mediums?
- Updating some new information on Foursquare, Mihaela Lica Butler on Everything PR, gives us a lesson on Foursquare Business Pages – A Powerful Marketing Tool.
- I feel we all should know the 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media. Stephanie Parker helps us use the new medium correctly on Social Media Today.
- Give them Something to Talk About by Geoff Livingston on his blog suggests ways to get the community to talk and engage.
- Google’s Patent Screed Emerges As PR Blunder on Search Engine Land by Greg Sterling documents the PR responses by Google and Microsoft over patents.
- How Not to Do a TV Interview by Marsha Friedman on EMSI’s blog gives you four basics to remember for your next TV appearance.
- I’ve heard it said PR needs to understand SEO. Lee Odden gives tips and addresses How Public Relations Can Avoid Failing at SEO on TopRank.
- We can all improve our writing and avoid jargon. Lindsay McCaffrey’s blog brings us 10 MORE words and phrases I don’t want to see in your writing (or hear in the business world).
- Five Minutes with…. Dr. David Michaelson – In this interview with David Geddes, Chair of the Institute for Public Relations Commission on Measurement and Evaluation, Dr. Michaelson discusses standards in PR research and measurement.
- When Click-Thru Rates Aren’t Enough: New Strategies for Social Media Measurement – Joan Coyle, an independent consultant and member of WWPR, recaps a Washington Women in Public Relations Executive Communicators Committee Brown Bag Luncheon with Johna Burke, senior vice president, marketing and a sales, for BurrellesLuce
Privacy on the Internet: What Every Communicator Should Know
September 20th, 2011
Flickr Image: o5com
Privacy laws remain the same, even in electronic mediums. Many organizations think the rules might be different, but actually the same rules apply. This was a key point from the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC) September 13 professional development panel.
The expert panel included:
• Brigitte Johnson, PRSA-NCC president and director of communications and executive editor at American Forest Foundation
• Randy Barrett, communications director, Center for Public Integrity
• Justin Brookman, director, Consumer Privacy Project, Center for Democracy & Technology
• Christian Olsen, vice president for the Digital and Social Media team at Levick Strategic Communications
All the panelists reminded the audience about the importance of being transparent regarding who you are representing when pitching online media.
Barrett commented on the concerns of media and journalists. Media outlets try to avoid the appearance of any kind of bias and ask their journalists to be careful of whom they “like” on Facebook. Journalists should also always identify themselves when on social media, verify all social media leads and remember social media posts are discoverable in court.
Always disclose who is behind a post, because transparency is key says Brookman. He recommended looking at why and how much secondary data you might be collecting and be sure to disclose how it will be used. You should try to avoid unnecessary collection. He used the example of mobile apps, which can often have access to all the data on the phone. Olsen agreed and commented on how he removed the Facebook app from his smartphone, because he thought Facebook went too far when his entire address book of phone numbers imported to his Facebook account.
Public relations professionals have an obligation to counsel clients on how to be transparent in social media. Olsen encouraged the audience to understand the rules of the various platforms and said everyone needs to be monitoring what is being said through various tools, whether that be a free or paid tool(s). But as good as tools might be, it’s important to have someone, who has an understanding of the industry as well as social media, reviewing the information.
PRSA-NCC president Johnson reviewed the code of ethics for several professional organizations and found they all had truth, honesty, and fairness as the basis for the codes. She commented that we are all guided by our ethics, first, so don’t ignore them. She encouraged all to work to stop the idea of being spin pros.
How do you counsel clients on privacy and transparency? Are their examples you can share with the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers?
Using Social Media to Communicate and Market Around Natural Events
August 26th, 2011
The ground moved on Tuesday, here in D.C. and along the East Coast. I happened to be the only one in the small BurrellesLuce Washington, D.C office at that time. Needing to figure-out what was happening, I turned to Twitter. MyFoxBoston.com posted an interesting visual of how the over 40,000 tweets spread across the US.
I know all the Californians reading this, are still laughing about our reaction to a 5.9 earthquake, but this is a terrorism-scared town and coast (on the cusp of the 10 year anniversary of 9/11) and we don’t usually have earthquakes. There were a lot of funny and useless tweets, which had Howard Kurtz commenting on the media’s feeding frenzy of the event in “Washington’s Earthquake Farce” in The Daily Beast.
However, there were some organizations using new media to help communicate to the public. Concerned about my limited service, I tweeted Verizon Wireless, who answered my question quite quickly. Because many phone lines from various companies were jammed or down, people were encouraged to use social media or texting to communicate.
Several other organizations used social media to push-out the most current service information.
Crisis Information
The earthquake caused several spires to fall from the National Cathedral, which is home to many national events and presidential funerals. The cathedral quickly created an impressive website page with a Twitter stream, information on the damage and a donation form for help paying for the repairs.
Round-up the Customers
Many stranded workers gave retailers an opportunity to offer earthquake specials or let customers know they were open via their Facebook pages and Twitter. I thought the $5.80 specials were a nice tie-in to the 5.8-magnitude earthquake.
What other creative social media marketing have you seen centered on a natural event? Are you prepared to communicate through social media in a crisis situation?
The East Coast is now waiting for Hurricane Irene to hit this weekend. I wonder what the Twitter-sphere will be saying about it and which bar will be the first to offer a special on hurricanes.
#PR, #Google+, #SocialMedia, #Measurement, #MediaRelations….Summer Reading Part 2
August 10th, 2011Sometimes the best information you receive has been shared by your social media connections. In an earlier post, I linked to some of the interesting articles I came across regarding public relations and PR measurement. Below are some additional, must reads involving Google+ and social media.
Google+
I could fill a few blog posts listing other articles about Google+. The multitude of social media discussions on whether or not Google+ will defeat Facebook and Twitter seem to be endless. I don’t think anyone knows, yet, how the platform will ultimately perform, but you might want to brush-up on it, just in case.
No time to read?
Social Media and the Web
Do you have any PR summer reads to share with the Fresh Ideas readers?
#PR, #Google+, #SocialMedia, #Measurement, #MediaRelations….Summer Reading Part 1
August 8th, 2011What are you reading this summer? Has your Internet browser taken to you to some interesting ideas? Here are some of my favorites articles:
Public Relations
PR Measurement
Do you have any PR summer reads to share with the Fresh Ideas readers?
Vacationing off the Grid
July 19th, 2011
Oceanview from Vijitt Resort, Phuket - Photo credit: Debbie Friez
Around this time last year, I asked, “Do you need to unplug from social media?” in a BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas post. At the time, I admitted I couldn’t completely do it, but I had tried to limit my time online. Realizing I might need a break from the noise, I decided to try harder, this year. I was NOT taking my BlackBerry with me on vacation to Singapore and Phuket, Thailand.
Reality Check
Be honest. Can you live without a mobile phone? The real answer should be a resounding “Yes,” but it’s not easy! My husband and I are used to being able to contact each other whenever we want, so the idea of “no phones” did not seem plausible. Our trip started with a work conference for my husband, so he would need his work BlackBerry. I decided to take his personal BlackBerry, but turn-off any roaming ability for data. This would limit me to when I was in network (U.S. only) and WiFi areas for anything but calling and texting. I don’t have the text posting ability set-up for Facebook and Twitter, so I wouldn’t be tempted to post that way.
Despite our preparations, it was harder than I thought to turn off our electronics! I love posting my observations (that I think are funny or interesting), and suddenly, I couldn’t! I did bring my BlackBerry Playbook this way, if there was WiFi, usually in public areas of the resorts, when I was admiring the beautiful view from the Singapore Flyer, I could only take pictures and record with my Flip camera. When I caught a couple taking “action shots” of each other on the beach, I could only laugh. (I couldn’t even point, because that is very rude in Asian cultures.)
However, the time difference actually made my limited time online easier to handle. Very few friends were online when I was, so I didn’t linger as long as usual. I discovered Peter Shankman was also in Thailand, so I asked him for advice on where to go. It was comforting to know I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sleep and was posting at what would be the middle of the night back home on the East coast.
