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:
- Attend only if you will contribute or learn from the meeting
- If you MUST respond to an email or phone call during a meeting excuse yourself from the room. (If you do excuse yourself, let someone else in the meeting know how long you anticipate being gone.)
- NEVER tweet or post an update to Facebook during a meeting. (Chances are someone is connected to you or following you and will see your indiscretion.)
- 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.
Say Yes To Being A Good Meeting Participant Or Just Say No To Attending
February 24th, 2010What would you do if a colleague was commenting on Facebook instead of paying attention to your presentation? A friend of mine recently faced this dilemma. While her meltdown over the incident was wildly entertaining and worthy of its own Bravo series, she still has unresolved issues with meetings and attendee participation.
The scenario that prompted this post:
My friend, an attorney, was presenting to other partners at her firm about a potential class action case. During her presentation she had the attention of all of the partners except one. This particular partner was in the midst of several pleadings, so my friend presumed the feverish Blackberry activity was related to the partner’s negotiations. Sadly, this was not the case. Upon returning to her office, my friend found that the colleague in question was commenting on Facebook pictures of another associate during the meeting. Her response to the slight was to storm into her colleague’s office and berate her for being rude and inconsiderate. Her colleague then responded that perhaps she would have paid more attention if the presentation was more interesting.
OUCH!
Two alpha females in the heat of battle could only be subdued by the senior partner of the firm. The senior partner offered a resolution of “get over it” and “move on with the important business of your respective case load.”
Unfortunately doing so is often easier said than done. I, like other PR professionals, attend many meeting during the week. And while some of them may not be as amusing as the activity on Facebook, there is still something to be said about respecting our colleagues, never mind the potential of missing some important information, during a meeting.
In an effort to help meeting attendees everywhere, I believe if we all adopt these three rules of courtesy and productivity we can avoid future occurrences of hurt feelings and hostility.
3 meeting rules that promote courtesy and productivity:
I admit I’ve tweeted during web meetings and responded to emails that could have waited with no regard for the meeting moderator or other attendees. For this, I apologize. I am committed to changing my ways and will no longer be seduced by the flashing red light of my blackberry or the call of social media during meetings. I hope my BurrellesLuce colleagues will hold my feet to the fire and join me in being courteous and productive.
If we can’t follow these simple rules we need to evaluate why we are attending meetings in the first place. Will any of you take the three rule challenge? Please do, and let us know how it changes your meeting “experience.”
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 “
