Yesterday BurrellesLuce had the opportunity to host a webinar, “Tips for Planning & Evaluating Successful Events,” with Abbie S. Fink, vice president/general manager of HMA Public Relations. (Download the on-demand webinar and slides on the BurrellesLuce website).
During the webcast Abbie offered some great tips to help PR professionals drive awareness, boost organizational profits, and pitch events to the c-suite and employees.
Here are some Twitter highlights from Abbie’s presentation:
- Improve the outcome of events by using a PR plan. Your organization’s mission and goals can serve as the foundation for a strategic PR plan for your event.
- Make sure events fit your plan. Have goals to measure the success and value!
- Don’t short change your goal setting. Set the expectations in advanced, look at the calendar, and make adjustments.
- Prioritize your goals and develop objectives. Then develop strategies, tactics and tasks based on needs.
- Build relationships with spokespeople at every level. Remember to include internal communications/employees as part of your PR strategies. They are one of your best resources for planning a special event.
- When you partner with the media remember this may limit how other outlets can cover the event. Target your audience.
- To add value, implement promotions and activities to further enhance media relations efforts & establish partnerships.
- If you mix the general public and the media at an event – let your spokespeople know.
- It is easy to get lost in details. So, share responsibilities and know who does what and what time is needed.
- Remember soft costs should be accounted for when determining the COST of events.
- Think about trade and other ways to use and maximize your budget through sponsorships and in-kind donors.
- Separate specific events from special ones. Know what would be standard or regularly occurring rather than a one-time or special milestone. (Think annual Gala vs. 25th Anniversary Celebration).
- When looking for volunteers, look for people with particular qualities and who enjoy giving their time and energy. Then ensure there’s work for them, even if it is as simple as stuffing envelopes.
- Remember – if it’s mandatory than it isn’t volunteering.
- After implementation consider conducting an evaluation (e.g., survey or focus group) to determine the effectiveness of events.
- Always say “Thank you.”
Want more tips for planning and evaluating successful events? Download a copy of Abbie’s Tip Sheet for Planning and Evaluating Successful Events! And be sure to keep an eye out for an upcoming post where Abbie shares additional insights on the Q&A not addressed in the webinar.
Abbie S. Fink
Hollow-Point Bullets Prompt Solid Online Response Tips
Monday, February 13th, 2012How does this domestic squabble translate to business? Other than being a teenager’s “crisis” I don’t know that it does, but it does strike me to remind everyone the importance of responding to negative comments online.
Here are my top tips for dealing with negative comments online:
1. Stay calm. Don’t let your adrenaline (fight or flight urge) get the best of you and cloud your judgment.
2. Respond publicly. Mirroring the original format is very powerful. Dominoe’ss Pizza is probably the best case study of this when they had their viral video crisis in 2009.
3. Be courteous*. Offer acknowledgement or an apology, whichever is most appropriate, with sincerity and gratitude for the opportunity to address the matter. *If you run into a troll refrain from calling them out until you have done your due diligence of their misdeed or erroneous feedback.
4. Provide resolution. In some cases this means a refund or some other compensation for the problem. In other cases this will mean “agreeing to disagree” on what is fair and what you can do based on the feedback.
5. Reflect.
a. Why did this person take their grievance public?
b. Was this the only forum available to address the concern?
c. What are the opportunities you have to improve your product or
service to strengthen your relationship with all of your customers?
d. Did you provide resolution to the issue?
6. Be thankful. REMEMBER: Negative can be positive. Your public response will demonstrate your commitment to your clientele. Also, when a customer is talking to you, even sometimes negatively, you are still communicating and can improve the situation.
At BurrellesLuce public comments are primarily responded to by either our account managers or the marketing team. These are the people who are closest with our existing clients and who manage the external communication and social media interactions. This post by Mack Collier further reinforces the importance of public responses and provides additional resources of how companies have fared much better when they respond to negative feedback. This list is meant to be a primer and I welcome your feedback and additional tips for the Fresh Ideas readers.
Tags: BurrellesLuce, business, communication, crisis, Dad Uses Facebook to Teach Daughter a Lesson, Dominoes Pizza, Facebook, Fresh Ideas, IT, Johna Burke, Mack Collier, media, Media Relations, negative comments, online, public responses, resources, tips, transparent, video
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