Name: Debbie Friez
Email:
Bio: Here at BurrellesLuce I manage the company’s relationships with many of its largest clients. I've honed my public relations knowledge through ongoing conversation with clients and active involvement in professional and educational organizations. I currently serve on the advisory board for the Capitol Communicator, the board of directors for the National Capital Chapter of PRSA, the national marketing committee for the Association of Women in Communications, and I am a member of the Washington Women in Public Relations. 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
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.
Crisis Communications in a Social Media World
June 3rd, 2011
Some see social media as helping to create communications crisis situations. But effectively using it to get your messages out ahead of the story is the key to surviving a media maelstrom or crisis; this was the focus of a Washington Women in Public Relations (WWPR) panel on May 26. The panelists included:
Raj Aggarwal, president, PROVOC
Greg Kihlström, CEO, Carousel30
John Hellerman, partner and co-Founder, Hellerman Baretz Communications
Roz Lemieux, partner, Fission Strategy
Derede McAlpin, vice president, Levick Communications
Moderator: Rachel Henderson, account director, Public Affairs Group, Ogilvy PR
Monitoring The Media for mentions of your company or client and competitors allows you to have an early warning system, says McAlpin. If you start to see a lot of stories or posts coming in, there may be a problem. Lemieux added having a good relationship with your online community and constituents will help any organization to be a step-ahead of a crisis.
The panel offered several tips for social media crisis communications:
