Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on March 02nd, 2012

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday, Ruth is in Las Vegas talking about staying true to your brand.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 29th, 2012

Here at the AHA office, we’re updating our knowledge to include Pinterest. If you don’t know what it is, here is a great piece on Mashable that explains it.  It’s our job to be on top of new tools and technologies. While that’s not always easy, it is always interesting.

Our clients rely on us to know what is of value for them and what isn’t. I have to say that our clients don’t tend to be out there, ahead of the pack, using new social media technologies. They aren’t early adopters and I don’t think they should be. For the most part, our clients want to communicate with the “average” person – someone who is using social media networks, not creating them or leading the charge to populate new ones. Our clients see social media as an important part of their communications tool kit, but as just one component. (At AHA, we just don’t develop social media strategies; we develop communication strategies.)

I had an interesting conversation with a potential client recently. Their approach to social media was that they think it’s just a trend, that isn’t here to stay.  I was a little surprised at that and probed a little deeper. There were some red flags for me because when they said their stakeholder group wasn’t really participating in social media, I asked how they knew that. He said: “I just know it. I don’t participate, so I am sure they don’t. I don’t think it is of value for us.”

I realize that there are organizations that may have stakeholders that aren’t active in social media (in my personal experience, I have yet to identify one, but I am sure they are out there). Even if your stakeholder group doesn’t appear particularly active – they aren’t “liking” your fan page on Facebook or following you on Twitter – it doesn’t mean they aren’t active. They just might not be engaging with you!

Before you jump to any conclusions whether your stakeholder group is active or not, do some research. Find out if they are online, where they are and what kind of information and social networking sites appeal to them. Understanding your audience is the first step to entering the conversation.

For those of you who might think social media is just a fad, have a look at this short presentation that puts social media and its influence into context.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 27th, 2012

We have clients throughout North America and often I need to be in the AHA office for an early conference call. I tend to get here early anyway, so that I can review blog posts, articles, read newspapers, and briefly watch several news and morning shows. (Yes, I have a TV in my office!)

I love my time in the morning. With coffee in hand, I have the opportunity to learn something new everyday. The information and knowledge shared online allows me to put information into context, to see different perspectives, and to better understand how, when and why different tools and tactics could be used. I also see best and worst practices. There is a wealth of information available online and it’s current, innovative and of value.

We are big fans of Brian Solis. I came across this piece by him today and thought I would share it. It’s a worth a read.

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on February 24th, 2012

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday Ruth discovers a communications lesson while in line at Tim Hortons. (And I now know which line to stand in…)

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 21st, 2012

Sometimes you read something and you think, “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” This piece is one of those. It’s about what happens behind closed doors in the world of PR.

It’s worth a read.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 16th, 2012

I had the opportunity to speak to communications students at Capilano University earlier this week. They are smart, engaged and are going to bring some great, new energy to the PR world. Connecting with students always inspires me, it makes me realize how fortunate I am to work in PR and it reminds me how valuable PR is to an organization.

There are many, many functions of PR. At the foundation, we help our clients to build positive relationships with their “publics.” (You can replace the word publics with the noun that works for you: stakeholders, audience, target market, employees, government, media, community—the list goes on and on.)

One of the questions that came up when I was speaking to the students was around engagement and the best way to approach it. That depends on the community and the organization’s objectives, but it brought home the fact that PR is about engagement and that you don’t engage by just putting up a Facebook page or opening a Twitter account.

At AHA, we have an in-depth process that we go through with a client when we are focused on engagement. You really need to understand your target market—who they are and how they want to connect with you. (Not how you want to connect with them!) There is a great deal of research involved, the defining best practices, understanding what the organization wants to communicate and discovering what the stakeholders want to hear from the organization. Being interesting, informative and, even, entertaining (which can scare some organizations) is important. You want to provide people with something that is of value to them. If you are just pushing out information, you will lose their interest.

We approach engagement as an evolving entity that needs consistent attention paid to it and that can—and should be—measured on a regular basis. Engagement is an art and a science, and it takes effort. You need constantly pay attention and review what is working and what isn’t.  You need to authentically connect and ask stakeholders what they want. You also need to respond in a timely fashion to their requests, demands and feedback or they will go elsewhere.

To me, engagement is at the heart of what we do. There are a lot of great communications plans that don’t produce results because this one important step—engagement—didn’t get enough attention in the planning stage.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 14th, 2012

For some reason, we are experiencing an increase in those time-wasting, frustrating, painful calls from telemarketers that try to sell you something that you don’t want and you don’t need. We’re also getting companies that want us to send business their way because “we’re good” and “your clients would be happy using our services.” (Really? Is that why I get up in the morning? To introduce you, someone I don’t know, to the clients we have built strong relationships with over many years???)

So for any of you reading this that recognize yourself in the paragraph above—STOP CALLING! (I doubt this will do any good. It’s clear after about seven seconds of a conversation that they not only don’t read the blog, but aren’t clear about what we do here at AHA.)

I answered the phone the other day (everyone at AHA answers the phone, it’s how we roll) and on the other end was someone trying to sell me a listing for AHA in some online database that targets lawyers. We don’t get business from lists; it just doesn’t work that way for us. We build relationships, we showcase our expertise, and we are fortunate to receive referrals from colleagues, clients and even journalists. However, I happened to be in between tasks and had just poured a tea for myself, so I had a minute to “fully experience” this call.

She had a pitch, but it didn’t feel authentic. She kept telling me that she had a “free listing”—but the more I probed, the more I realized that there was some trickery to her approach. She sounded deceitful, which was a red flag, and she wouldn’t answer any of my questions with a direct answer.

Below is an excerpt of our conversation:
AHA: “So, this listing is absolutely free and there won’t be any costs at any point down the line?”
Telemarketer: “Let me tell you a bit about the listing, which would put you in front of thousands of lawyers…”
AHA: “So, to go back to my question: Is there any cost at any time for this listing?”
Telemarketer: “This (mumble, mumble) has no cost; it is a basic listing…”
AHA: “I am sorry I didn’t hear the first part of what you said. Is there any kind of a cost attached to this listing, now or at a later date?”
Telemarketer: “This listing is free during the evaluation phase of 30 days…”
AHA: “So there is a cost.”
Telemarketer: “No, it’s free during the evaluation phrase. Your name will be in front of thousands of lawyers who really need PR.”
AHA: “First off, there is a cost. Secondly, how do you know that these lawyers need PR?”
Telemarketer: “Let me ask you something. Are you or are you not the decision maker there?”

That’s when I realized that I was engaging her and wasting my time (and hers) and politely ended the conversation with: “Yes, I am the decision maker and my decision is to demand that you remove me from your calling list. Thank you.” And I hung up.

It felt like she was trying to con me. I got off the phone and I kind of wanted to take a shower. That interaction felt gross; it was deceitful, predatory and without ethics. Once I let go of my frustration and indignation over this ridiculous call, I realized that there were lessons to be learned from it.

Below are the three lessons a bad telemarketer taught me about communications.

Be Truthful

If there is an issue, a challenge or a cost involved, be upfront about it. Don’t misrepresent and don’t fib; if you do, you are going to be found out. People aren’t stupid, they can tell when someone is trying to pull something over on them and there are a lot of people out there that will check the facts you give them and bust you if you are wrong.

We pitch media and bloggers and reach out on social media networking sites all the time. It is our job to position stories and to highlight benefits, but it is done in an authentic way.

Be Respectful

When the telemarketer asked me: “Are you or are you not the decision maker there?” it was appalling to me. There are a lot of people who are influencers that may not be the final decision maker. Keep in mind that you don’t know the power or influence that a person may wield. Respect everyone.

I realize that time is money and that many sales books say to ask if that person has the authority to make the decision to buy, but it’s more complex than that. If you don’t acknowledge and respect the people on the team, you won’t get anywhere near the decision maker.

Be Authentic

I know that the telemarketer was just doing her job and she had a pre-written script that she was meant to follow. But from a communications perspective, it screams of being inauthentic. I am not saying that you shouldn’t have key points if you are calling media to pitch them or are being interviewed—references and resources are a good thing. But if you are focused on delivering a script like the telemarketer, you don’t really hear the objections or the opportunities; you are too busy trying to stay on script.

Do you have any communications lessons you have learned from bad telemarketers?

Posted by Paul Holman of AHA Creative Strategies on February 10th, 2012

In today’s AHA Fast Take Friday Ruth talks about what’s important to know before getting into a career in PR.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 09th, 2012

I’ve written about this before and will write about it again… Be careful what you put on social networking sites—professionally and personally. If you wouldn’t want to see it on the front page of your local newspaper, don’t put it up.

The people on my Facebook page represent a range of relationships to me. Some are close friends, other acquaintances, others are former colleagues and some I have only met either briefly in person or not at all. It’s a bit like a neighbourhood coffee shop where there are a lot of different people hanging out.

With the recent changes on Facebook I have seen this happening more recently, but it really hit home the other night when a friend happened to comment on her friend’s photo. I am not connected at all to the person who uploaded the photo, but I could not only see the photo (which was of a party where people were clearly tipsy), but I could see all of the comments below the photo. The person that uploaded the image likely has no idea how many “strangers” could see that image or the conversations that followed. I don’t know what this person does for a living (although I do now know where she lives and what bar she goes to, thanks to the comments), but what if that was a VP in your office or a board member? (Please don’t think that VPs or board members are too responsible to do such things—they’re human.)

Organizations are using social media networks to check out potential employees, research competitors, and check on current employees. And they aren’t the only ones using social media networks to find things out. There is no buffer zone anymore; it’s important to remember that.

I believe that most of what is shared on social media networks is done in the spirit of good fun, but how it is perceived or used can hurt your professional and personal reputation and it could reflect on your brand reputation as well.

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on February 07th, 2012

We’re doing some (early) spring cleaning at the AHA office. As we go through files, media coverage binders and jump drives, we have the opportunity to reflect a little on campaigns and projects from the past. This week, we came across the files for one of our favourite creative campaigns. In the early days of AHA, we were fortunate enough to be asked to work on a documentary series called Healing with Animals, produced by Mystique Films. This was a fabulous series that focused on how animals help humans heal.

We wanted traditional media coverage for the launch of the series. (This was back before social media was as widely accepted as it is today… Seems like a million years ago, but in reality we’re only talking about seven years.) We also wanted ongoing coverage as well. We were fortunate that the filmmakers (Mary Bissell and Chris Bruyere) were out-of-the-box thinkers and “got” what we wanted to do, because we used a creative approach that took a bit of a leap of faith on their part. (Which is why we loved working with them!)

One of the segments focused on Wallace, a llama that would visit homes for the elderly. It turns out that Wallace loved people and that seeing a llama in their lobby created a positive reaction in some of the elderly, especially those suffering with dementia. Quite often, the surprise of seeing Wallace would pull the person into a period of reality. They were able to interact, converse and connect in a way that they normally struggled with due to their condition. Wallace loved the attention and the people he visited loved him.

We ended up generating a huge amount of national coverage for the series and Wallace was one of our “stars.” Our client was thrilled with the results.

The lessons we learned working with Wallace were many—below are the top three.

If you are pitching media, do your research.

We knew that (at that time) national talk show host Vicki Gabereau had a soft spot for animals. She ran a weekly spot showcasing pets that were up for adoption. She owned two labs. We saw an opportunity here to appeal to her personal interest in animals, as well as to pitch why it was good for the show as a whole.

We customized our pitch to reflect the key points we knew about Vicki and the show. It wasn’t a generic pitch; it reflected the show’s mandate and touched some personal interest points for the host. The producer loved the idea and Wallace and our client were invited to come on the show.

Get the most value for your efforts.

Wallace lived on Vancouver Island and The Vicki Gabereau Show taped in downtown Vancouver. There was a body of water between us. Wallace’s wranglers brought him over via ferry. (He loves the ride and had his own customized van for travel.) It took a lot of time and effort from everyone involved to bring Wallace to Vancouver to appear on the national talk show. In order to make the most of this opportunity we added an autograph session to Wallace’s visit. (I mean, really, how many times in a communicator’s career do you have a llama in the downtown core of Vancouver?) Prior to the taping of the talk show, we had Wallace at the corner of Burrard and Robson (one of Vancouver’s busiest corners) “signing” hoof autographs for fans. Wallace loves people, so he was in his glory with the tourists, the children and everyone coming to meet him and pet him. We sent out a photo opportunity notice to media across the country—explaining that Wallace was in town to be on The Vicki Gabereau Show to promote his segment in Healing with Animals.

There was huge national coverage on this. The coverage not only showed images of Wallace in downtown Vancouver, but also mentioned his upcoming appearance on The Vicki Gabereau Show (the show was live to tape so aired a day later) and mentioned Healing With Animals and when it aired. Everyone benefited.

We also had a shot taken of Wallace on the corner signing autographs and sent this out to community papers and other media that couldn’t make the photo opportunity. This also generated coverage and it was used in promotional materials for the show, providing additional value to the filmmakers and the broadcaster.

Do whatever it takes to get the job done.

People have an idea that the life of a communicator is filled with nice lunch meetings and business class trips to posh client organizations. Not my life, not that I would trade it for anything.

I learned a lot about llamas while working with Wallace. 1) They spit when they are mad. (I am grateful I never made Wallace mad at me.) 2) If Wallace really liked you, he would lean in for what seemed to be a kiss, and then he would expel air in your face. No spit, just stinky llama breath of affection. (He seemed to really love me!) 3) They won’t go to the bathroom unless there is already llama poop at the spot. Well, Wallace needed to do his business before we took him into the studio. His wranglers had thoughtfully brought a bag of llama poop with them. It was my job to put out the poop so Wallace would then do what he needed to… which he cheerfully did. Then it was my job to pick up all the poop.

There I was, in a small parking lot just off Burrard Street, picking up llama poop in my business clothes. Such a glam life I lead.