Name: Johna Burke
Email:
Bio: I’ve been in the media monitoring and measurement business for nine years, joining BurrellesLuce in 2000. How did I get here? I was a client. I was the PR and IR director at U-Haul International for nearly 11 years. Then I chose to help make my former peers more efficient and effective. I enjoy my role as a trusted advisor and am enthused to speak about best practices in public relations. My commentaries on the subject have appeared in PR print and web outlets. Currently, I chair the Southern Region of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). So what am I passionate about, aside from measurement? My family which includes my three “boys” (Boston terriers). By the way, did I mention that I am also a master at Seinfeld trivia? Twitter: @gojohnab; LinkedIn: Johna Burke; Friendfeed: gojohnab; Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Posts by Johna Burke:
- Have a clear understanding of your brand and your value statement for your audience.
- Listen to your audience and understand what they want and/or need from you.
- Engage to provide clear messages and value.
- Measure your successes and failures.
- Make adjustments to further build on your strengths.
Do-se-do Your Partner
February 1st, 2010In Virginia, one of the highlights of the fourth grade was the annual square dance. We practiced “our moves” for weeks, got just the right plaid outfit, and when the event arrived we were all in top form to do-se-do our partners. In many respects, minus the plaid, social media is the communication do-se-do equivalent. If you’re “free-styling” too wildly people may watch, but it’s hard for them to partner with you.
Flickr Image: Seatle Municipal Archives
Long before there was social media there were sewing circles. These communities influenced decisions and trends by their power of conversation. Last week the Craft and Hobby Association Winter Convention and Trade Show reminded me that good communication, no matter what the platform, yields results if you move in tandem with your audience (partner).
Granted, I was influenced by the bedazzled smocks and aprons, but was truly amazed at how smoothly these communities have integrated online socialization into their face-to-face roots. (I’m very thankful at BurrellesLuce we are fortunate to have an engaged social media team, enthusiastic bloggers, and amazing client advocates who have made a similar smooth transition of their relationships.)
There have been at least a hundred new mainstream dance moves since I was in the fourth grade, but, like with crafts and hobbies, the classics live on forever. The evidence is in this video of children doing the Virginia Reel at the 2009 Kala Ghoda Art Festival in Mumbai, India.
Do you have a social to online success story you’d like to share? What classic core competencies do you attribute to your success? How have those skills attributed to your success in social media?
Names (Mom and Google) You Trust Sometimes Lack Accuracy
January 15th, 2010
Flickr Image: bunchofpants
If you don’t know what day your birthday is for 33 years what else may you not know? I was talking to my friend Frankie and he was relaying the story about how he celebrates his birthday on both January 14th and 15th. I’m in favor of stretching out a celebration, but it was the reason he gave that I share with you today. Frankie’s parents told him his birthday was on January 15, 1954. One day, while going through important family documents, he ran across his birth certificate and to his (and his mom’s) surprise his stated date of birth read January 14, 1954. When he asked his mom about the contradiction, she told him that he was born close to midnight so she “thought” it was the 15th and she just never looked that close.
In a BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas post last year I addressed Google and the Associated Press (AP) “Google Alert Users: Are You Getting What Google’s Not Paying For?” and it appears the other shoe has finally dropped. In Softpedia’s article there’s speculation and rumor about why Google is no longer updating AP content, including a quote from Google that leaves more questions than answers. My concern is the impact on public relations practitioners who rely solely on free content. The “why” is equaled in importance by “what” the impact will be to media measurement reporting? Just yesterday Linda Vandevrede announced a special “Meet the Associated Press in Phoenix” event on the Valley PR Blog. Perhaps one of the attendees can ask the AP their thoughts on the Google issue. More importantly I hope the pr pros planning to attend are also making arrangements on how to best monitor the coverage their new contacts are going to help them get for their clients.
If you rely solely on Google alerts and have AP media relationships how will you now monitor, report, and analyze the impact of your news coverage? Do you even know the full extent to which this can compromise your existing reporting benchmark? A prime example of the importance of AP stories is “Two health-care proposals may get boot, Dems say” . If you’re in Healthcare PR how do you explain to the C-Suite why you didn’t know about this story? How much will “There was no Google alert for the story so I didn’t know” cost your organization?
While Frankie has never missed a birthday, in fact the last 23 years he’s celebrated two days per year, he did have to go back and change all of his other documentation to match his legal birthday. PR pros will not escape so easily from the impact of this decision by Google. The only cost to Frankie was a few hours at the Department of Motor Vehicles, updating other government documents and work information, but what do you have at risk by not having confirmed data sources, specifically the AP content?
How will you manage year-over-year expectations of clients when your coverage declines? How will you gauge the impact of key messages and campaigns if you can’t access the information via Google? Is it important enough to make an investment?
Is Good PR “A Steady Rain”?
December 9th, 2009Over the weekend, I went to the closing performance of A Steady Rain starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig. The show consists of essentially two talented actors, one silly mustache (sorry Daniel), two chairs with the occasional back-drop change and an amazingly written script. It was simple, yet gripping. I started to think that this play was much like many of the really good public relations efforts we see every day.
In many ways, PR is “a steady rain” in that there is always something happening and always some type of an opportunity. In some spheres the 24/7 news cycle and the continuing growth of social media means unlimited potential. So why are some organizations thriving while others struggle to get their footing? One reason: some organizations are solely focused on the hype and the medium instead of focusing on the overall strategy. This tactical approach resets focus every time a new communication medium is identified. Others simply do not have a product or service that translates effectively to their audience in this space (e.g., Aerospace). While there may be active conversations going on in social media, the aerospace section, for example, is not influenced as much by public opinion as it is on science.
The second reason (although not the second most important reason) is good writing. Clear concise writing is vital since we have less time to capture the reader and engage them in our message. At BurrellesLuce we have a team of amazing editors that take the time to review copy for both content and context. This is an invaluable resource to an effective communication team.
I often say “good communications is the key to any good relationship” and public relations is no exception to this rule. While we all must advocate evolving media in order to be good counselors to our client we must also think strategically and know the difference between an exciting new buzz driven forum and a target market for our stakeholders. We should always be listening, but remember if your stakeholder is not there then what’s the business-purpose to allocate any resources?
Since the run of A Steady Rain is over I can tell you it ends in a death. I worry that without ongoing focus on quality communication many careers of my peers in PR and social media will have the same ending. What is your secret to ensure quality of your outreach? Do you write for the reader first or SEO?
Social Media is the Wood Lathe of Junior High
November 9th, 2009Much to my mother’s dismay I took woodshop instead of home economics in middle school. Partly because I knew I couldn’t cook, but mostly in the hope woodworking could unleash my artistic capabilities. Sadly, I was wrong. What I did learn is the importance of the various tools and using the right one for the right project. Social media is much like the wood lathe. You can’t just walk up to it and create beautiful pieces. However, with training and practice you can create good work. Once you understand the equipment and have some training you can create something useful and sometimes beautiful, but there are only a few masters in the space. (Some of my handiwork still has a place of honor at grandma’s house!)
Google Image: Wood Carving Guide
The BurrellesLuce booth is in a great location for traffic and for feedback, here at the 2009 PRSA International Conference, so we are hearing a lot of buzz after each session. Attendees want to hear directly from @scottmonty and @southwestair rather than merely opinions about their programs without the granular measurements to really show effectiveness. Read the rest of this entry “
Conan’s Newark Wings Clipped via YouTube
September 30th, 2009It often seems as if nothing is off limits when it comes to late-night comedy, but Conan O’Brien might wish he had drawn the line before he took a jab at Newark, New Jersey. He made the following comment on his show: “The Mayor of Newark, New Jersey wants to set up a city-wide program to improve residents’ health. The healthcare program would consist of a bus ticket out of Newark.” Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, responded with this YouTube video.
A lot of public information officers (PIOs) struggle with how best to handle social media due to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Hopefully the actions taken by Newark will serve as a good case study and pave the way for other government agencies to participate in the conversation. I know I’ll continue to follow the tweets, videos and social media efforts of Mayor Booker, the City of Newark, and Newark International Airport (EWR) as these government outlets effectively take on social media and even network television as needed.
Mayor Booker tweeted that it was a “joke” – accompanied by this cheeky tweet: “just got call from the White House. Pres is inviting Conan & I to come have a beer & try 2 settle this. This could be a teachable moment.” I hope for Conan’s sake he can make the peace. If the tri-state winter precipitation is anything like the spring and summer this year I would hate to be banned from EWR for my travels.
If the City of Newark were your client, how would you have advised them after the Conan comment? Do you feel like the Mayor and City of Newark are demonstrating good media relations/public relations use of social media? I always appreciate your feedback and know that other BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog followers benefit from your feedback when you post here.
