Christina Khoury

Complaining Vs. Whining

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Man Buying ClothesI believe that the ability to be a salesman is innate.  You’re born with it or you’re not.  I come from a family that could sell a red popsicle to a socialite dressed in a couture white sundress.  Because of this ability to make people feel welcomed, cared for, and a priority, I always found myself working in retail.  I worked the customer service desk at Marshalls when I was 15 years-old and as assistant manager of a sneaker store at 18 years-old.  My retail career ended only a couple of years ago to focus on my career in PR.  What I learned from working in retail and handling customers has always translated  into my daily work as a PR professional.

Recently I came across an interesting article by Sarah Nassauer for the New York Times, “I Hate My Room,’ The Traveler Tweeted. Ka-Boom! An Upgrade!” The article discussed how customer service is changing now that we have a million eyes at our finger tips.  This isn’t new information as we all know that a company’s reputation can be hurt by a simple tweet, status update, Flickr image, YouTube upload, or TripAdvisor review.  And that’s only naming a few of the various platforms we use on a daily basis.  In the article a guest tweeted about his unsatisfactory room.   The front desk employee was watching and immediately went into damage control offering an upgrade.  Kudos to the front desk for monitoring the social network.  But does every guest that complains/whines about service need to receive compensation or a resolution? Continue reading →

TJ Dietderich

On Going Above & Beyond

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USA, California, HawthorneAs I read this blog post from the wonderful Danny Brown, I was reminded of an episode of ER from back in the Clooney days.

Bear with me here for just a second.

Old school fans of Must See TV might remember the episode. The entire day, the ER is bogged down, people are having the hardest day of their lives, the attractive doctors are getting frazzled, patients are complaining, and because of a myriad of complications, not a lot can be done. Then George Clooney gets up, grabs some first aid supplies, and starts patching up the dozens of people sitting in the waiting room. The other doctors join in, and the human spirit rises to the occasion: FINALLY, stuff is getting done despite the red tape because it’s just the right thing to do.

(Critics of this episode probably include malpractice lawyers and insurance folks who cry at scenes like this. Sorry, lawyers and insurance folks!) Continue reading →

Danielle Cyr

Are you a shadow of your Twitter self?

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Shadows of two men talking, (Low angle view)A recent post by Alexandra Samuel on The Conversation, 10 Reasons to Stop Apologizing for Your Online Life, contends that IRL is a lie and sign that we are in denial about reality (and life) in the 21st century.  While I agree with many of the points Samuel made, it got me thinking about people who, pardon the term, IRL are polar opposite to who you meet when the relationship moves offline.

We’ve all been there. Hit it off on Twitter and decided to meet for coffee. Been twit-matched by another tweep because we seem like a perfect virtual match, but sat in an awkward silence face-to-face. Wondered if we had the right Twitter handle show up to make our IRL acquaintance. On the flip side, we’ve all gotten what we thought we were getting when taking a relationship from virtual to face-to-face terms.  (Although, I’m sure one could contend that Skype gives us a virtual face-to-face relationship, but, alas, I digress.) The question is: how and why does it happen? Continue reading →

Christina Khoury

Go Where Nobody Knows Your Name

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Two handsHow many conferences/seminars have you been to this year?  How many more do you plan on attending?  How many of those seminars/conferences are for PR professionals?

If you need two hands to count I suggest you stop.  A wise PR professional once said (during one of those redundant PR conferences) to stop going where the PR people are and head to the trenches.  Go where the journalist are and get to know them.  Last month I had the opportunity to attend the 2nd Annual Travel Blog Exchange, a two day “conference” of travel bloggers/writers looking to learn from each other and share their experiences.  Overall it was the perfect chance to meet some of the people I’ve gotten to know via Twitter, just like every other conference, but more importantly it also gave me an inside look into the life of a travel writer.  In case you’re unaware, this is important to me as I recently started my career as a travel publicist. 🙂 Continue reading →

Ryan Ruud

Social Media + News Media

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Corporate ConnectionsMost localized media outlets are baffled by the function of social media in their newsroom. There is a giant “huh?!” cloud hanging over the head of many newsrooms on how to start using social media (SM) in news workflows, use it correctly, and why it benefits a news brand.

“You mean I have to keep talking to my viewers even after my story airs?!”

The audacity, right?

I’ve spent three months in the newsroom of a top 20 market station expanding social media, I’ve narrowed down three tips for getting a media outlet’s SM platform off the ground. Continue reading →

Uncategorized

A Chat with PRSA’s Arthur Yann, APR, on Role of PR in Business

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Recently, I had the very good pleasure of getting to know Arthur Yann, APR, vice president of public relations for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Arthur offered a terrific comment to my post a while back imploring the PR and communications profession to defend its work, and we have gotten to know each other since then. Arthur even graciously invited me to attend the PRSA Silver Anvil Award ceremony, which was a wonderful event honoring many great contributions to the public relations industry (The photo below is of the Air Force Public Affairs Office accepting an honor at the event.)

The United States Air Force Public Affairs Office receives an honor at the 2010 PRSA Silver Anvil Award ceremony (Photos courtesy PRSA/Andrew Giammarco)

Last week, I took some time to chat with Arthur about his role at PRSA, what the organization is aiming to do for future generations of PR professionals, PRSA’s relatively new Business Case for Public Relations initiative and other thoughts and insight on the PR and communications profession. Continue reading →

Kate Ottavio

Twitter is one big, fat inside joke between 100 million people

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Golfers laughingIf you don’t get this post, then you don’t spend enough time on Twitter. I however, have spent too much of my time on Twitter since I joined in March 2009…and for that I lead a sad, sad life. #kidding

Ok, so we’ve all had the “why are you on Twitter?” discussions with friends and family who are not on Twitter. “What’s the point?” Or my favorite from my boyfriend as we’re in his car: I’m giggling looking at my BlackBerry screen and he says “what’s going on in the Twitterverse?” How did he know I was on UberTwitter and not that someone just sent me a funny text or e-mail? Easy answer: he knows me. Continue reading →

TJ Dietderich

Your Copy Sucks: Punctuation Ruins Lives

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Man Looking at Question Mark in ClassroomThis blog post begins on a personal note. I am legally obligated to tell you that in case you are a very important person who can’t be bothered with personal notes. You have been warned!

I’m currently dating quite the sweetie and life is pretty good, I guess! We have fun times, and we’re both wordy people. Ahhhhh, the joy of conversing with someone who knows what adverbs are! It’s quite nice.

But a spanner was thrown in the works, guys. We had our first fight. And it was about punctuation. Continue reading →

…..a chance to start the day off right.