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This book review by Johna Burke, BurrellesLuce SVP,  first appeared on commPRO.biz and is reposted with permission. 

First, let me say that I love biographies. People are fascinating and their stories rarely fail to compel and inspire me to think differently, try something new or just try to be an overall better person.

Patrice Tanaka’s book “Becoming Ginger Rogers…How Ballroom Dancing Made Me a Happier Woman, Better Partner and Smarter CEO” was, as advertised from the front cover, “inspiring.” And, for me, a page-turner because I’ve met Patrice personally, but also because she is a public relations pro telling her own story. In essence, whether your personal “style” is rumba, foxtrot, tango or the samba—you’ll really like this book. Reading this book IS the mirror-ball of communications—and it’s A WINNER!

Not only is Patrice co-chair, chief creative officer and whatcanbe ambassador at PR firm CRT/tanaka, but she is also is an artist of words. Throughout her career she told the story of her clients and organization so eloquently; this is no less true in her book. She turns her storytelling into a master class of “take care of you” for every professional. Within her book she wins and loses love, she struggles and succeeds in business and she follows her passion to develop new skills. Patrice teaches lessons of endurance and empowerment through life and specifically through dance. As she transforms her physical appearance and mental strength she learns and fills gaps of vulnerability with confidence, poise and glamorous gowns.

A few lessons I learned that you can apply to your daily life and career, as well:

1. Be a leader. Be in tune with yourself and allow wonderful things to happen all around you. Patrice, while herself is a dominant leader, her strong lesson came from her taking cues from her strong partner and instills those same traits with her “whatcanbe” program at her agency.  
2. Be a follower. My favorite lesson is from the mambo where Type-A Patrice let her partner lead. She didn’t rely on a routine, but allowed herself the freedom to live in that moment of the dance in the power of her knowledge to guide her and trust in her practice and experience.
3. Love yourself. When times are tough, remember that unless you are strong and take care of yourself it’s hard to be strong for others.
4. Love what you do. It will show. No matter what you’re doing: PR, marketing, dancing, knitting, accounting—love it while you’re doing it and you’ll find the best YOU. If you don’t love it, don’t worry, but don’t force something that doesn’t feel right. There’s a “Ginger Rogers” in you waiting to bloom.
5. Follow your gut. Patrice suffered loss in her life, but you would NEVER know it. She commands an audience whether her feet or her mouth are telling the story. She is inspirational and truly in tune with her heart and her instincts.

This book is a tapestry of communication and life lessons and skills exemplified at the highest level. Each day we all dance our own mambo and after reading Patrice’s book you’ll be reminded to master the basics and the routine will follow. So many times in a world trying to be clever, the simple lessons are the most powerful.

I read this book in two days—just the pleasure and the mental vacation I needed. The real joy is that it’s a business book too. Patrice is an entrepreneur who has a keen business sense and places high value on people to make her organization thrive.

Through all of the stories and lessons the secret ingredient to this book is, in fact, Patrice. She transforms herself and reminds me to prioritize and be diverse. Communications plans are very much the same. You know the moves you have the technique and you need to trust your skills to execute and rely on cues for subtle adjustments as needed. When you meet her in person, don’t be fooled by Patrice’s tiny stature … her presence is large and in charge on the dance floor and on the PR scene.

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About Patrice Tanaka: Patrice is Co-Chair, Chief Creative Officer and whatcanbe Ambassador at CRT/tanaka. She’s also author of “Becoming Ginger Rogers…How Ballroom Dancing Made Me a Happier Woman, Better Partner and Smarter CEO.” Her personal philosophy is that of “whatcanbe,” CRT/tanaka’s brand vision, cultural ethos and approach to business that involves helping the agency, its clients and the community-at-large to envision and manifest a bigger, brighter, better future.

Transcript -
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce and I’m here at the PRSA Connecticut event on social media. I’m joined by Lane.

Lane, will you please introduce yourself?

LANE SUTTON: Sure. I’m a 14-year-old social media coach and entrepreneur for diverse types of businesses.

BURKE: Lane, you just did a presentation about social media. Can you tell us a couple of the key takeaways in working with the youth today via the channels of social media?

SUTTON: Definitely. So no broadcasting, OK? So we’re in the era where PR releases do not work on social networks. And now we need to engage and listen and have bigger ears out there. And then also customer service is a huge differentiator for PR in that what–that’s what sets companies apart from each other. And lastly, PR has been used so much. You know, it’s all about analysis and things. So some great tools to do that would be Hootsuite, Social Mention and journalist tweets.

BURKE: And to show that Lane is very well rounded, he has a pretty exciting announcement. What’s your new position at school when you’re not out public speaking, Lane?

SUTTON: I’m treasurer for student government for my freshman class at Framingham High School.

BURKE: Excellent. Congratulations, Lane.

SUTTON: Thank you.

Transcript -

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at Counselors Academy. We’re joined by Alan.

Alan, will you please introduce yourself?

ALAN COHEN: Absolutely. My name’s Alan Cohen, and I’m president of Acts of Balance Executive Coaching and Training based out of New York City. And I work with public relations executives and PR firms to help develop more effective leaders, and I work a lot with communications skills and team-building.

BURKE: Great. Alan, you did a session on tough conversations for PR practitioners and agency owners here. Can you give us a couple of your insights as far as how people can set up and then have those tough conversations?

COHEN: Absolutely. One of the most common things that I see in my practice is people really avoiding having those tough talks. And in avoiding them, they actually make the situation even bigger and more volatile. We largely like to be people pleasers, and so we avoid having the conversations that may be unpleasant, may provoke some strong emotions. But what I do is really help develop people to think, to plan in advance, to go through a multistep process to really think about how they’re interpreting the situation, to really align their values with having the conversation and to really, really plan it out so that the conversation will develop into a real win-win-win; a win for the individual having the talk, the–a win for the person who’s being spoken to, and really a win for the relationship overall. It’s really about a collaboration. So as leaders, we need to have the courage to have the difficult conversations. And leadership is not always easy, but it’s important that we stay in integrity by really addressing the situations that are causing us discomfort.

BURKE: Alan, thank you so much. Where can people connect with you online and in social media?

COHEN: I’m at actsofbalance.com, and my Twitter handle is actsofbalance.

Or you can join my Facebook fan page, also Acts of Balance.

BURKE: Thank you so much, Alan.

COHEN: Thank you.

However, I do remember feeling bitter about the perceived special privileges given to smokers. It seemed no matter how much needed to be done – the smokers got their break. They were permitted extra time in some cases because they “needed” their cigarette in order to function. This got me thinking that maybe mobile devices are the new cigarette. We excuse mobile devices in work and social settings because people “need” to be connected.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m guilty of taking out my device when I’m surrounded by interesting people. I guess, one could say that the “need” to know if someone has tweeted or facebooked something that “must” be immediately reviewed is an addiction of mine…

I’m sick of being that person. I want to get more focused, enjoy the real live people in front of me, whenever I have the opportunity, and show respect when people make time for me face-to-face. Wall posts and tweets can be viewed anytime – so they’ll have to wait.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. So far, I’ve come up with these three reasons it’s ok to take out your mobile device when in a meeting or out socially:

1. If you need to call 911
2. If the room is dark and light from your device will illuminate the room or a menu/document to be viewed
3. If something MUST be Googled to settle a debate and avoid a full out riot

So, the next time you’re at a meeting or out socially, think about your companion and the message you’re sending before you pull out your mobile device. If your mobile device was a cigarette would you take it out even just for a quick drag? If the answer is no, then I challenge you to have the same courtesy with your mobile device. Remember courteous smokers would ask people in their group if they “minded if they smoke” … at a minimum be conscious of your mobile addiction.

I don’t think a mobile courtesy law is in our near future, but we can still make a difference. Will you join me in this effort and step away from the device and enjoy the people? If so, leave your name in the comments section and we can police each other on our mobile “smoking” progress.

Transcript -

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PRSA Counselors Academy. I’m joined by Lisa.

Lisa, will you please introduce yourself?

LISA GERBER: Yes. I’m Lisa Gerber. I’m the chief content officer for Spin Sucks and Spin Sucks Pro.

BURKE: Excellent. You know, this is a blog that a lot of those in the PR community actively read and use as a great resource. Can you tell me about how writing for the blog and how managing the blog helps your business?

GERBER: Sure. It’s huge. We–you know, the blog started a couple of years ago. Gini Dietrich had started it. And it takes a really long time to grow, to gain followers, to gain subscribers and build a community. But now we are at a point where we just have this incredible local community, lots of great comments and discussions, and usually a lot of the–a lot of the gold is in the discussion and the comments section of the blog posts. We really welcome that and try to nurture that. In terms of what it does for our business, it just, it–a lot of things. It gives us a lot of credibility, and when we’re working with our clients and trying to show them and help them with their blogs and get them out there we’re able to show that this–you know, we actually do this and show as an example.

BURKE: And I think it’s a great example and, you know, a true testament to practicing what you preach.

GERBER: Right.

BURKE: And I mean, I love the manifestation of that in all of the posts and in the community that you’ve built. So congratulations on a job well done.

GERBER: Thank you.

BURKE: Where can people connect with you online and in social media?

GERBER: They can find me at spinsucks.com. I blog every other Wednesday. And on Twitter I’m @lisagerber.

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at Counselors Academy with George Rosenberg.

George, will you please introduce yourself?

GEORGE ROSENBERG: Hi, I’m George Rosenberg. I’m an adviser and consultant to owners of public relations and integrated communications firms. It’s great to be here at Counselors.

BURKE: Great. And, George, you just talked about giving tips on energizing your firm. Can you share some of those high level tips with the people here?

ROSENBERG: There–yes, I can. Thanks, Johna. There are three major areas that suggest that maybe your firm needs to hit the refresh button: you’ve lost your way as a leader, you’ve lost your enthusiasm for business, and you’ve lost your momentum as an agency. So develop a sales plan, commit to spending 75 percent of your time with sales rather than marketing, make sure you have a business plan and keep going. Take the next six months to develop your business plan, develop a budget for your agency. Think about how you reinvigorate yourself as a leader. It’s a great–it’s a great lesson. If you’ve lost your enthusiasm for the business, something’s wrong. If your agency’s not growing, something’s wrong. So think about reinvigorating, refreshing your business through sales, through marketing, and maybe through new management teams challenges.

BURKE: Great takeaways, George. And can you tell people where they can find you online and in social media?

ROSENBERG: Georgerosenberg.com is my website, my Twitter handle is prcoach. And I look forward to hearing from people.

BURKE: Thanks so much, George.

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at Counselors Academy. And I’m joined by Joseph.

Joseph, will you please introduce yourself?

JOSEPH THORNLEY: Hi, I’m Joseph Thornley. I’m the CEO of Thornley Fallis Communications in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada.

BURKE: Joseph, you know, here at PRSA Counselors Academy, I know that this takes a weekend out of your life and a lot of time, and so it’s obviously very important. Can you talk about how you work your own professional development into your day-to-day, and how you encourage your staff to do that as well?

THORNLEY: Sure, absolutely. I think–I’m 59, and I was saying to my wife last night, because she’s here at the conference with me, that I’m still learning every day. And that’s what makes me know that I’m still alive. And I learn a lot by reading things online. I’m a big believer in RSS. I can find the people that I really care about and I can read what they have to say and I can learn, I can write about myself. But I come to conferences—I probably come to more conferences now than I did 20 years ago because I’m very often meeting the people I’ve been reading and I’m getting engaged in discussions with them, and it’s a true learning experience. What I look for in a conference is a session where I can have one actionable takeaway once an hour. And if I get that, it’s a tremendous success for me.

BURKE: Fantastic. Now, where can people connect with you online and in social media?

THORNLEY: They can connect with me, I’m thornley on Twitter and I’m—my blog is propr.ca, P-R-O-P-R.C-A.

BURKE: Thank you so much.

THORNLEY: OK. Thank you, Johna.

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at PRSA Counselors Academy. We’re joined by Martin.

Martin, will you please introduce yourself?

MARTIN WAXMAN: Yes. Hi, Johna. It’s Martin Waxman from Energi PR Communications Digital based in Toronto, Canada. We want you guys to come to Canada.

BURKE: We want to come to Canada, too.

WAXMAN: We need you.

BURKE: So, you know, Martin, you just did the session on Inside PR, and you do the blog, and there’s so much valuable resources that go into that for the PR professional. How did you decide to be involved with this program and to really help this PR network evolve and develop so much?

WAXMAN: Well, “Inside PR” started about 250 weeks ago, about four and a half years ago. Because I know that, we’re on show 252, 253. And it started by two people, Terry Fallis and David Jones, who actually work with one of the co-hosts, Joe Thornley. And they started “Inside PR” really in the early days of social media as a chance to get out front and talk about where PR fits into the social media mix. Fast forward to show 100, the two of them were getting a little bit tired, so they brought on a number of new co-hosts. I was one of the co-hosts, there were two others. And then after about six months, I was the only one that stayed on. So the three of us stayed on until show 200. Dave and Terry decided to retire and I thought, you know, I know Gini Dietrich, I know Joe Thornley, I thought the three of us might be a really good group and have some interesting things to say, hopefully, on “Inside PR.” So we got together and we’re having a great time recording the shows. We actually record them separately from our own offices or homes, and then the tracks are produced together. So being at Counselors Academy, it’s really great to be able to be face-to-face and also to meet people while we’re doing it. And we appreciate, you know, sponsors like you guys who help make this happen.

BURKE: Great. Well, thank you so much. And where can people connect with you online and in social media?

WAXMAN: You can find me at “Inside PR,” which is www.insidepr.ca. You can find me on Twitter @martinwaxman, or you can find me on my blog, and it’s martinwaxman.com.

BURKE: Thank you so much, Martin.

WAXMAN: Thank you.

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PRSA Counselors Academy. I’m joined by Dana.

Dana, will you please introduce yourself?

DANA HUGHENS: Hello, I’m Dana Hughens with Clairemont Communications in Raleigh, North Carolina.

BURKE: Dana, you did a great presentation on the three P’s, kind of the pillars that you use to build your successful business. Can you share those with the audience here of PR practitioners and communicators?

HUGHENS: Sure. The first P is promise, and it’s all about defining your promise or pinpoint your promise. And that’s promises that you make to other people, and also you have to think about the promises that you make to yourself. And those promises tie to principles, which are your founding principles and your guidelines for your agency.

The second big P is potential. And what I like to say is purpose plus passion plus possibilities equals potential. So you have to think about your purpose. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Go back to the original thought of why did you start you agency, or why did you accept the job that you’re in now? And then you have to think about the passion, and the passion that you have for that, and how you instill that and nurture that with your other team members. And with those things, what are the possibilities, where can you go with that? Be willing to be open to possibilities and open to take a risk.

And the last P is people, and there are three P’s under this P. And it’s preference. Think about how people prefer to get information from you, and work with them and give them the information in the way they like to receive it. The next one is predict, and that is really just predict that there are a lot of things that you can’t predict when you’re dealing with communicating with people. The last P, and perhaps the most important, is plain and simple.

And this just goes back to a general rule about communications that the more basic that we can make it and the more straight-forward, the easier it will be for people to receive the message that we’re intending to communicate.

BURKE: I think it was a great session. I was there. And I think the power of plain language is always the strongest hook at the end.

HUGHENS: Thank you.

BURKE: Because, you know, we get so caught up in industry jargon, and then information that just doesn’t convey to our audience. And so, Dana, where can people connect with you online and in social media?

HUGHENS: My Twitter IM @blah2voila. You can also connect with Clairemont Communications on Twitter @ClairemontComm. Clairemont Communications is also on Facebook, and you can visit our website and blog at clairemontcommunications.com.

BURKE: Thank you so much, Dana.

HUGHENS: Thank you.

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at Counselors Academy in Las Vegas. I’m joined by Gini.

Gini, will you please introduce yourself?

GINI DIETRICH: I’m Gini Dietrich. I own Arment Dietrich in Chicago, and I’m also the author of Spin Sucks and Spin Sucks Pro.

BURKE: Fantastic. Gini, you know, there’s a lot of talk about ethics with some of the current news events going on, and I would just like to get your perspective on how you educate and work with your clients and with your staff on how to be ethical in all of their activities.

DIETRICH: Yes. So, you know, I mean, one of our values is ethics, and being very ethical and being very honest. And of course, Spin Sucks is the fight against destructive spin, so it’s very integrated into our culture and into our values. We actually have one client who will say, `Why won’t you let us do that?’ And we always say, `Because it’s not ethical.’ And he’s always like, `But why?’ And so, you know, we have a really good rapport with him in helping him understand why certain things are ethical why certain things are not. And it’s really an ongoing education process because there’s so many bad examples in our industry. So we just keep educating and just keep talking about it.

BURKE: Gini, thank you so much. I think holding that line will continually elevate and educate those about public relations and all the value that can bring. Where can people connect with you online and in social media?

DIETRICH: So Twitter is Facebook–or not Facebook–ginidietrich. Spinsucks.com is the blog, and then facebook.com–facebook.com/armentdietrich is our page.

BURKE: Thanks so much, Gini.

DIETRICH: Thanks for having me.

Flick Image: raphaelle_ridarch

Are you responsible for growing your Facebook page? If so, and if your sole motivation is quantitative and not engagement, you may be able to use the latest update to drive your goal. The new Facebook administrator change is a new/old change and allows administrators to send a notification to “Like” your page versus the old method of sending email notifications that were often lost in the shuffle.

Why does this matter? Now, you can simply link to “Invite Friends” and not worry the call to action will be lost somewhere – as these invites come up as Facebook notifications rather than generic recommendations. The interesting option suggested on Inside Facebook is to increase the number of administrators to your page to help drive growth of new pages.  This gave me moment for pause because of the security ramifications. But, if Facebook is the preferred medium and the community owns the space and the page creator has taken the time to make informed decisions about who else they would like to have admin their page then, perhaps, this wouldn’t be as scary an option.

Facebook is being cautious with the use of this feature and is only making this available to administrators with the initial launch of a new page. Still, there’s the potential conflict that this free function could interfere with paid marketing efforts.

My advice. Try it. If you’re comfortable, increase your administrators for a week and see if you improve your conversion and overall numbers. If you do, please share your results here, on Fresh Ideas, so we can all learn.

If you want to experience a whole day of learning all about Facebook, please join PR News for the August 9^th Facebook Conference in San Francisco. BurrellesLuce is a sponsor and I look forward to seeing you there.

Last year, in Barcelona, Spain, AMEC was the driving force behind the Barcelona Principles. Many of you have likely seen these referenced in conference presentations or blog posts (some even here on Fresh Ideas) and have worked to apply these basic principles to your own organization’s measurement efforts. The AMEC U.S. Agency Research Leaders Group also provided communicators with the framework and context of how to apply these metrics to drive organization outcomes in the validated metrics overview.

This year, the focus of the group was on identifying and starting to work on the top priorities and issues referenced as the Measurement Agenda 2020. During the delegate discussion, each delegate had the option to select four topics where the organization would look to focus effort and resources.

The top ranking issues, along with their percentage of the vote, are represented below:

1. How to measure the return on investment (ROI) of public relations (89%)
2. Create and adopt global standards for social media measurement (83%)
3. Measurement of PR campaigns and programs needs to become an intrinsic part of the PR toolkit (73%)
4. Institute a client education program such that clients insist on measurement of outputs, outcomes and business results from the PR programs (61%)

The draft options are listed below:

1. Measure how internal and external communications drive employee engagement and support business goals
2. Create and adopt best-practice approaches and standards for culture change management
3. Measurement of PR campaigns and programmes needs to become an intrinsic part of the PR toolkit
4. Develop new business-focused language to align with other top management functions
5. Continue to push for the elimination of AVEs and the adoption of valid metrics
6. Define approaches that show how corporate reputation builds and creates value
7. Create and adopt global standards for social media measurement
8. Determine standard approaches for the inclusion of PR in a market mix and other analytical models
9. Determine standard approaches to determine how PR drives brand equity
10. Institute a client education program such that clients insist on measurement of outputs, outcomes and business results from PR programs

As a fellow PR practitioner and communicator, do you agree with this list as the focus? What would you have selected as the top priority? If anything, what do you feel is missing from the list?

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PR News Measurement conference. I’m joined by Angie.

Angie, will you please introduce yourself?

ANGIE JEFFREY: Angie–I’m Angie Jeffrey, vice president of integrated media for VMS.

BURKE: Angie, you spoke earlier about the Barcelona principles. Can you talk a little bit about the validated metrics for those that weren’t here to experience those, about what those mean to PR and to PR campaigns?

JEFFREY: Yes. The validated metrics guidelines were put together by a group of people from AMEC and PRSA who wanted to make public relations measurement much more–much more valid, and to give an alternative to ad value equivalency.  And they take into account three phases of public relations on the left-hand part of the matrix, and on the top they go through the five stages of the communications funnel so that you go from a very simplistic type of measure down to outcomes, business outcomes, much more complex. But the goal of the program would be to work a client down through that grid to that business outcome.

BURKE: Excellent. And I know that part of the benefit of being an AMEC member is having that international influence, and we look forward to seeing how those Barcelona principles continue to develop and influence measurement. Angie, can you tell people where they can connect with you online and in social media?

JEFFREY: Sure, Johna. I’m @ajeffrey1, which is A-J-E-F-F-R-E-Y-1, or my regular e-mail address is ajeffrey@vmsinfo.com.

BURKE: Thanks so much, Angie.

Transcript -

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PR News Measurement conference. I’m joined by Israel.

Israel, will you please introduce yourself?

ISRAEL MIRSKY: Hi, I’m Israel Mirsky, I’m executive vice president for emerging media technology at Porter Novelli.

BURKE: Fantastic. Now, in your presentation earlier you talked about, you know, creating a measurement plan around international clients, and how it has to be the language first and then the medium. Can you talk a little bit about how you approach those international clients and kind of some of the groundwork that you lay in order to make sure that they’re getting good, measurable results?

MIRSKY: Well, the challenge is that as soon as we start rolling out a social media program that’s successful in English, the clients really want to extend it out to regions because that’s the way they’re organized.

Unfortunately, the Internet doesn’t have national boundaries, per se, it really has language boundaries. So people are speaking in Spanish in one country while they use different dialects, the Boolean searches, the channels and places that they talk are often similar or related. While some companies are working to build indexes that relate directly to regional, on the whole we don’t believe that regional perspectives are the most valuable way to approach international deployments in social media programs. Instead, you go from the language first. You build out your Spanish and your Portuguese, French, Russian and so on, and then you allow the channels where people want to engage from, the countries that they want to engage from, to follow from there. And it’s been a pretty successful deployment for us. We’re starting to do it on a number of clients now, and I’m very excited about it.

BURKE: Excellent. I think it’s so valuable because, you know, we start to think that it’s a global experience and, you know, everything applies everywhere. And so I loved the fact that you have that distinction in establishing your programs. Where can people connect with you online and in social media?

MIRSKY: So our website is www.porternovelli.com, and you can reach me at @israelmirsky on Twitter.

BURKE: Fantastic. Thanks so much.

MIRSKY: Thank you.

Transcript -

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PR News Measurement conference. I’m joined by Karla.

Karla, will you please introduce yourself?

KARLA WACHTER: You bet. I’m Karla Wachter, I’m the senior vice president of Insight and Analytics for Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.

BURKE: Karla, you were talking earlier about, you know, people and how they need to tie business objectives to their bottom line. And I think a lot of the viewers probably have very quantitative-based programs right now. What are some of the tips that you would offer for people that want to adopt a more qualitative approach to their measurement campaign?

WACHTER: You bet. Well, first of all, I want to point out that it should be customized based on your unique business problem and business objectives for your company. That’s the most important thing as a filter.

The second thing is taking it beyond volume into thinking about some of the standard metrics like tone, but really thinking today about engagement as well as a core qualitative measurement as well, to really be able to start linking effectively and bridging that gap between what is an output today to an outcome.

BURKE: Excellent. Karla, where can people connect with you online and in social media?

WACHTER: Yes, @karlawachter on Twitter, and waggeneredstrom.com online.

BURKE: Thank you so much, Karla.

WACHTER: Thank.

Transcript -

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, everyone. This is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and I’m here at the PRSA Counselor’s Academy. And we’re here with Tracey.

Tracey, will you introduce yourself?

TRACEY BOCHNER: Sure. Tracey Bochner with Paradigm Public Relations in Toronto.

BURKE: Canada, yay! So, Tracey, for those people that can’t attend this session of leaders in the PR industry, what are some of the takeaways that you’d like to share with them in the sessions that you’ve learned here?

BOCHNER: I’ve been to some really interesting sessions, particularly on HR, on retaining employees, on growing your business. Some of the biggest takeaways I think for us from the session have been around how to structure bonuses, because that’s something we’ve been looking at very closely, and how to grow your agency. We’re an agency of 14 people and we’re only two and a half years old, so we’re busy on this growth path, and there’s been a lot of–what the most interesting pieces for us have been about growing your agencies to be not big, but the best. That was Elise Mitchell’s session yesterday, which was fantastic.

 And out of some of the roundtable sessions this morning, tips and advice on how to structure bonuses for best motivating employees, how to look at retention strategies that, again, motivate employees. Even the softer things like beer on Fridays, what are some of those tactics that have worked really well for other agencies? And that has been very interesting for us.

BURKE: Great feedback. And where can people find you on the web?

BOCHNER: We’re at paradigmpr.ca.

BURKE: Great. Thank you so much.

BOCHNER: Thank you.

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PR News Measurement conference. We’re joined by Ed.

Ed, will you please introduce yourself?

ED DAVIS: Sure. My name is Ed Davis. I am the director of media relations for the United Way of greater Houston. And we are a nonprofit, one of the largest United Ways in the United States, located in Houston, Texas.

BURKE: Great. Now, Ed, you talked about the changes that you’ve made to your measurement program. And I know so many times people want to get started and they want to make improvements and changes. Can you talk a little bit about some of those incremental changes that would help people get started in improving and overhauling their own–their current system?

DAVIS: Absolutely. Some of the incremental changes that we implemented on our way to a better process from a communications–both from a communications perspective and a measurement perspective is, number one, getting everybody on board with what it is that we were trying to do and helping everybody understand why we should do this. The second thing was proving the usefulness of this information to our senior leadership. Whether it’s your board, whether it’s your manager, whether it’s your CEO, it doesn’t matter. They need to understand at a very basic level why this is important to them and why it makes your business better. And so those are a couple things that we looked at.

BURKE: Great. And I think, you know, anytime somebody’s evaluating a peer measurement program, it’s always good to be able to get that peer advice of how can they get started. Ed, where can people connect with you online and in social media?

DAVIS: Sure. So online we are at unitedwayhouston.org, and you can always find my cell phone number and my e-mail address on there. And then on Twitter it’s H-A–H-O-U-unitedway, so H-O-U-U-N-I-T-E-D-W-A-Y. And then we don’t really use Facebook for that type of thing, so Twitter would be the best way.

BURKE: Great. Thank you so much.

DAVIS: Yes, ma’am.

Transcript –

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PR News Measurement conference. I’m joined by Dr. Grunig.

Dr. Grunig, will you please introduce yourself?

Dr. JIM GRUNIG: My name is Jim Grunig, or James Grunig. I’m a professor emeritus of public relations from the Department of Communication at University of Maryland.

BURKE: Also, very humbly, one of the new inductees into the PR News Hall of Fame, rightfully so. You know, part of your career has, I’m sure, seen the evolution of measurement. What are some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen in the growth in the industry over the last few years?

Dr. GRUNIG: Actually, the questions that are asked seem to be about the same as they were in the 1970s when I first started working on research and measurement and evaluation as a consultant at AT&T. People still want to show that they have some sort of measurable effects. I think there is an interest, I hope, in moving beyond just program evaluation, which there’s still a great deal of interest in–that is, how do we measure the effects of media relations or employee relations or marketing communications consultant–to get into the longer-term kind of value of the communication function to an organization.

And I think that’s best done through measuring relationships, and this is something that I’ve probably several articles on that’re published on the website of the Institute for Public Relations. And I think the emphasis on reputation is something that has occurred probably mostly in the last 10 years, and I think reputation can largely be explained by the quality of relationships that an organization has with its publics. And in turn, that can be explained by how the organization behaves. So our greatest value, I think, is in changing the behavior of the organization as much as changing the behavior of publics.

BURKE: Great. Thank you so much for your time. And I think that after that it’s no surprise why you are a highly revered person in the measurement community, and we’re so grateful to have the time with you today. Where can people connect with you online or in social media?

Dr. GRUNIG: Well, you can reach me by e-mail at jgrunig@umd.edu. I’m also on both Facebook and LinkedIn if you would like to contact me there.

BURKE: Thank you so much for your time.

Dr. GRUNIG: Thank.

Image Source: cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com

First, I want to say I LOVE Piers Morgan on America’s Got Talent and Twitter. His whole “persona” comes across perfectly as a judge and in 140-characters. When I heard he was Larry King’s replacement I harkened back to his appearance on Celebrity Apprentice and thought he would do a great job “handling” the celebrities and wouldn’t be too intimidated to ask the tough questions. I was wrong. Piers doesn’t lack chutzpah, he appears to simply be too narcissistic and has more interest in what he has to say rather than his interviewee.

Piers is a trained reporter and editor. He has the pedigree to replace Larry King; unfortunately he’s just not a good interviewer. Instead of focusing on the interviewee, you can see him anticipating a hole in the conversation so he can make his next comment. Seeing him in action reminded me that the interview can only be as good as the preparation of your interviewee.

Basic Media Interview Tips:

Practice: Successful message development and delivery depends on preparation. Think through how you will respond to tough or hostile questions by developing and practicing clear, honest and appropriate answers.

Conclusions: Prepare and present your conclusion throughout the interview. Just as you wouldn’t bury the lead you can’t “hope” the interviewer will ask you the perfect question.

Avoid Jargon: Instead of using industry jargon speak in simple lay terms.

Key messages: Prepare, understand and practice key messages. Return to key messages as often as possible – Think Bill Clinton not Gary Condit.

Deal with difficult questions: Some questions can’t be given a straight answer, but to avoid the question looks bad too. Bridging and Blocking are very effective assets.

Bridging: Maintain control of the interview with the use of these common bridging phrases -
“Before we leave the subject, let me add that…”
“And the one thing that is important to remember is…”
“While…is important, it is also important to remember…”
“It’s true that…but it is also true that…”

Blocking: Never say “no comment” – it’s an obvious don’t. Instead, simple blocking allows you to focus the conversation. Common blocking phrases:
“I think what you’re really asking is…”
“That’s an interesting question, and to put it in perspective…”
“I don’t have precise details, but what I do know is…”

Never Repeat Negative Questions: Always frame your answer in the positive. Think about sound bites.

Stick to your message: Simple is better. Avoid the expert trap of over-answering. Work on test questions and learn when to stop talking.

Remove distractions: Technology is wonderful, but even the most seasoned interviewee can’t fight the Pavlovian response of the flashing red light or the subtle vibration that a message has arrived to their mobile device.

Relax: Be calm, confident and conversational.

In fairness to Piers, his first guests, Oprah Winfrey and Howard Stern, are arguably two of the best interviewers in the industry. They ask questions, some tough and some embarrassing, and get out of the way so people can answer. They have an inherent ability to relate and create a bond with the interviewee. Really great interviewers are few and far between which makes interview preparation an imperative skill for PR pros.

These tips are the basics. The best “tool” in your public relations toolkit is a video camera. Video magnifies the strengths and weaknesses of your interview skills and allows you to fast-track growth and improvement. Do you have any tips and tricks you use for media training?