Name: Valerie Simon
Email:
Bio: As a journalist, I’ve covered topics ranging from technology and professional development to home décor and parenting. My work has appeared in print publications such as Brandweek, Toastmaster, and many New York area newspapers. I also write a public relations column for examiner.com. During my career in the media services industry, I’ve managed a national sales force, directed the implementation of upgraded products, and forged partnership relationships. It is this unique experience that I bring to my role here at BurrellesLuce, as senior vice president of sales. Twitter: @ValerieSimon; LinkedIn: ValerieSimon; Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Posts by Valerie Simon:
- Be wary of a name change and be prepared for a name change to take time (years and even decades) before it achieves the previous level of familiarity. At the time of the survey (1985), respondents derided the decision made by Tampa Electric to change to TECO Energy. While the new name did eventually take hold, it took years to build up the level of recognition Tampa Electric once had. While companies often change their names as a result of acquisitions and divestitures, because the focus of the business has changed, or to create an association with a trend, the survey indicated that many companies would be well served to think twice.
- A name should be easy to pronounce and remember. “Keep it simple and short,” my dad advised and pointed to the frustration of one investment advisor whose suggestion of “Harnischfeger” rarely resulted in more than a puzzled look.
- Good names are recognizable, easily understood, highly identifiable, and give a clear impression of the business. Although names like Exxon and Google can certainly work, give serious consideration to a name that describes your companies business. Personal and brand names are popular for these reasons. Survey participants responded well to names like National Semiconductor or Staples. Likewise, start ups should avoid using initials. While initials are fine for a well established company as IBM, potential investors are more likely to be attracted to a product they can easily recognize.
- Jobseekers should prepare a creative blog post for prospective employers and share it via Twitter during the event using the hashtag #HAPPO
- Employers can share job openings with the team of dedicated PR bloggers and influencers who will serve as regional champions
- All those in the PR industry can participate by sharing #HAPPO tweets with personal networks and lending support to those looking for a job
- List of Links to Council Member Blogs (Council of Public Relations Firms) I take the content of my Google Reader very seriously and have a folder devoted to following the blogs of PR agencies. Here is a great list of PR Agency blogs that helped me fill that folder!
- PR News 15 to Watch Nominees and PR People Award Winners There are a lot of great lists of noteworthy individuals in the PR community; the finalists for these PR News awards consistently showcase a sample of the very best in the public relations industry, highlighting both up and coming, as well as seasoned pro’s across a wide gamut of specialties.
- BurrellesLuce 2010 List of Top Media Outlets: Newspapers, Blogs, Consumer Magazines and Social Networks Yes, one of my favorite lists is created by BurrellesLuce. It’s a free resource you can download featuring the circulation figures of the top 100 daily newspapers in the United States, plus the 25 most popular English-language blogs, 25 leading consumer magazines and the top 20 social networking sites.
- Top Twitter Trends of 2009 and 2009 Year End Google Zeitgeist I have taken the liberty of putting these two lists together because I think the juxtaposition of the discussions which trended on Twitter and the fastest rising queries on Google is particularly interesting (and worthy of a blog post unto itself).
- Public Relations Trade Books A great Amazon.com list, for the PR industry, created by Georgia Southern University professor Barbara Nixon.
- The Ad Age Power 150 If you blog you are no doubt already very familiar with this daily ranking of marketing blogs. If you are looking to start blogging, this list will give you some great examples to learn from.
- The Top 10 Social Media Top 10 Lists of 2009 Several of the lists on this list (including Mashable’s Top YouTube Videos for Social Good) were part of my initial top ten, some of which offer great insights about social media.
- #PRStudChat Twitter list There are a myriad of excellent Twitter lists dedicated to those in the PR industry. You have likely created your own; here’s mine. As co-founder of #PRStudChat, a trending twitter chat between public relations students, educators and professionals, I wanted to get to know the participants of the community better outside of the hashtag. If you are looking for new people to follow on Twitter and who share your interest in PR, I think this is a great place to start.
- New York’s Top 100 Events for 2009 This list from Bizbash is a great way to get the creative juices flowing by sharing some off the most inspirational events of the year. Bizbash provides a “Top 100 events” list for several other cities, including Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Miami, Toronto, Orlando and Washington, DC.
- Your Turn. Please comment and share one of your favorite lists!
- Consolidation My Blackberry serves as phone, camera, watch, alarm clock, and calendar in addition to being my lifeline for email, Twitter and Facebook. I have also been known to use it as a calculator. If only it could serve as a keycard and control the thermostat and lights in my house, I might stand a better chance of getting out in the morning without forgetting. Successful apps will help you to use technology in a more efficient and convenient manner. Be on the lookout for technologies such as the L5 Remote, an accessory and free app that turn any iPhone or iPod touch into a universal remote control. New apps will help you to manage more media, easier and quicker than ever before.
- Mobility What is your workday like? Much of my day at BurrellesLuce is spent in meetings. And let’s face it, sometimes working is not conducive to… well work. Fortunately, as we move into the next decade media smart phones are becoming even smarter, and media will move with you. Consider Free Mobile TV, vehicles that also serve as Wi-Fi hotspots… you can’t run away from the news. Whether you are working remotely or in a traditional office setting, visiting with clients, or attending a conference, your location cannot be an excuse for missing out on important information.
- Connectivity. If you are a communications professional not being connected is simply not longer an option (with the exception of a well deserved vacation, I suppose!) When it comes to staying connected, few things are as frustrating (or frightening) as being on the road or in a meeting and seeing that the power bar on your Blackberry or laptop has dropped dangerously low. Since I hate packing numerous power cords (Okay, I don’t always remember to pack them), and have found myself in more than one meeting room with limited access to outlets, I was particularly excited to hear about YoGen, a green, universal mobile device charger that generates power with a simple pull and recharges devices in just minutes. One of my Twitter friends, Mike Schaffer, director of social media for Brotman-Winter-Fried Communications, will be helping to unveil the YoGen Charger at CES, so if you are in Las Vegas next week, be sure and stop by booth 4821 N, in the North Hall and say hello for me!
- Have a clear understanding on why you want a presence on Facebook. At BurrellesLuce, our surveys demonstrated that our stakeholders are active participants in Facebook. Is your audience currently interacting on Facebook? Is the makeup of your Facebook audience different than those you are reaching out to through other forms of media?
- Remember Facebook is not a strategy. Rather Facebook is one tactic in our overall communications plan. It provides us with an opportunity to connect with key stakeholders, to listen, and to share information. Our Facebook page incorporates our blog posts, the events we sponsor, and other marketing efforts. Be sure your activities on Facebook are consistent with your overarching communications strategy.
- Set realistic expectations and goals. “If you build it, they will come” does not apply. Facebook may boast over 300,000,000 active users, but what does that mean for your brand? Consider the demographics of Facebook in comparison to your target audience and the category of your brand. Will fans want to engage with you? Some categories are inevitably more appealing than others, so although the most popular category on Facebook is “nonprofits”; “celebrities”, “music”, and “products” are the most popular categories among pages with more than one million fans. In the business category, where BurrellesLuce falls, users often struggle with the issue of personal brand, versus professional brand.
- Give your fans a reason to engage. The Sysomos study noted that on an average Facebook page, the administrators create one wall post every 15.7 days. As BurrellesLuce sought to grow our Facebook presence, administrators increased activity, posting between 3 and 5 times a week. Along with sharing posts from Fresh Ideas, we have done campaigns exclusively for Facebook fans, such as a drawing done at the PRSA International conference or a current raffle to give fans a chance to join us at the PRNews How-To Conference (December 2 in D.C.) for free. Not surprisingly, as the number of fans increase, fan generated content will increase; those pages with more than one million fans have nearly 60 times as much fan generated content as the average Facebook page.
- Stay true to the medium Facebook is not your corporate website. Understand that Facebook is a forum for more informal conversation.
What’s In A Name?
March 5th, 2010Comcast’s rebranding of its cable, telephone, and Internet services (now Xfinity in 11 markets), prompted an interesting article in Time regarding the value of a name change. “Here’s one thing we do know,” 
says Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. “Comcast is going to spend a huge 
amount of money to get that brand to mean what it wants it to mean.” Here’s another thing we know: Shareholders should be asking, “Why?”
Was this name change a smart move? 25 years ago, my father and his colleagues at Manning, Selvage and Lee surveyed the financial community about what kind of corporate names attracted investors and whether a name affected people’s decisions to buy or sell stocks. Nearly two-thirds of the securities analysts, portfolio managers and investment advisors surveyed said that a corporation’s name had a direct effect on whether a customer buys a stock. In fact, brokers and analysts shared that they had even turned down the recommendations of their own research departments when they did not like a name! Takeaways from the survey include:
While there are a variety of other factors to consider when determining a name today (e.g. optimizaiton of the name in search engines, the availability of the website domain and/or username availability for social networking and bookmarking sites, among others), many of the insights from 25 years ago remain compelling.
How important do you think a name is to the success of a brand? What do you think of Xfinity? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
First-Ever “Help a PR Pro Out” (HAPPO) Day
February 15th, 2010
According to a recent article in The Economist, which shared data from Veronis Suhler Stevenson, spending on public relations in America grew by more than four percent in 2008 and nearly three percent in 2009 to $3.7 billion. The rise of the Internet and social media has given PR a big boost. However, in the current economic climate most of us know someone who is struggling with a job search.
When my friend Arik Hanson suggested we find a way to help those who are currently seeking a job in PR, I could not have been more excited. We realized that if we could use social media to leverage two of the most valuable commodities we each have, time and network, there was an opportunity to make a real difference.
So, we have asked a group of prominent PR bloggers and influencers across the U.S. to step up and Help a PR PRO Out (“HAPPO”), by donating their time and talents to help fellow PR pros connect with employers as part of the first-ever “Help a PR Pro Out” (HAPPO) Day. The event will run from 11am-3pm Eastern Standard Time (10am-2pm Central Time) this Friday, February 19, 2010. The call to action is simple:
At BurrellesLuce, we understand that Social Media Provides Opportunities in PR. There are a lot of talented, hardworking PR professionals currently seeking employment, and we hope that HAPPO can help facilitate some new connections and provide some support and encouragement for those in our industry who need it the most. I hope you will join us Friday and consider connecting with the HAPPO community on Facebook or Twitter.
10 Lists Every Public Relations Professional Can Learn From
January 26th, 2010
I’ve noticed a lot of controversy regarding the subject of “lists” being discussed on Twitter lately. Bloggers who create lists run the risk of being scrutinized for the choices they make regarding who is or is not put on a particular list and the methodology behind those choices. I have watched (and joined in) conversations over the merits of building a Twitter list, largely based upon who is excluded.
Personally I have always focused on what is included; the resources that someone felt were worthy of a special designation. I have learned quite a bit from reading the lists of other bloggers, and would like to give back by sharing some of my favorite lists for PR professionals. I’m only going to list nine, however, and challenge you to help me finish this post by leaving a comment that includes your favorite list. I hope that you are able to take away something new from my recommendations and I look forward to learning from you!
10 Lists Every Public Relations Professional Can Learn From
Will Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Shorten or Lengthen Your Mobile Leash?
January 6th, 2010
Communications underwent a dramatic transformation in the past decade. As Josh Berrnoff noted in his recent Groundswell blog post, in the past 10 years, broadband went from rare to ubiquitous, mobile phone subscriptions reached 270 million (out of 305 million people) and digital video recorders came into 31 million homes. Media became social, with reality television, blogs and social networks turning the tables and providing the audience with a veritable microphone. For public relations professionals, the new media landscape (including the real time web) offers new challenges and opportunities. As we move into 2010, we will continue to see more applications and devices that will help us navigate our way through this new world. Here are a few of the trends we will learn more about this week at the Consumer Electronics Show that I am particularly excited about.
While I believe that these trends will help us to do a better job of managing our work, one of my colleagues pointed out that they may well allow work to manage us. Are these devices a leash that will keep you chained to work, or are they the keys to free you to a more flexible, productive and efficient workstyle? I vote for the latter, but I am curious to hear your thoughts!
Making the Most of a Facebook Fan Page
December 2nd, 2009
Flickr Image: wvs / Sam Javanrouh
According to a new study by Sysomos , a social media monitoring and analytics firm, 77 percent of Facebook fan pages have less than 1,000 fans. As I write this post, the BurrellesLuce fan page is hovering on the cusp of the top 33 percent, with 962 fans as of this posting. We’ve more than doubled our fan base in the past six weeks, and I had a great discussion with Johna Burke, our senior vice president of marketing, regarding how organizations make the most of the opportunity Facebook offers.
How is your organization using Facebook? What are the challenges you find in developing and engaging a community of Facebook?
