e-Newsletter: Best of Show

6/2008

Welcome to the official newsletter of the Greater Spokane PRSA Chapter. Past issues can be found by going to www.prsaspokane.org and clicking on the "Newsletters" link.

Friday, June 6 is the last breakfast meeting before summer! Join us at 7:30 a.m. in Cataldo Hall on the campus of Gonzaga University for the joint PRSA/MarCom breakfast meeting. Join us as the award-winning team from Rockey Hill & Knowlton discuss their Dussault Award winning entry. This “best of show” award at last month's Spark Awards recognized a campaign/program that had a significant impact on the economy, vibrancy and prosperity of our region. “Light Up The Fox!” won by Rockey Hill & Knowlton (Mary Joan Hahn) and the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox (Annie Matlow, Elizabeth Thompson), was entered in the Community/Government Relations – Communication Campaigns category.

RSVP and save money by registering online for the breakfast. Go to www.spokanemarcom.com/meetings/rsvp.asp?id=58 to RSVP. Attendees can pay online, or just register and pay at the door. Breakfast meeting costs: $10 for students and members who RSVP, $13 for members at the door and non-members who RSVP, and $15 for non-members at the door. To take advantage of the RSVP discount, you must RSVP by Monday, June 2.

back to top

First of all, a big THANK YOU, to all of you -- the membership -- for supporting the Spokane PRSA board of directors during our strategic planning process. Many of you answered membership surveys, phone surveys, participated in focus groups, and have finally voiced your approval of almost a year-long initiative to enhance programming, increase the value of your membership, and provide strategic direction for the chapter over the coming years.

Second, another round of THANKS for your board of directors, who volunteer their time and energy to lead this charge, during their everyday work duties and personal lives. They have not only spent hours surveying the membership, but also reviewing feedback, writing/editing the plan, and of course, have been diligently working to continue the current chapter activities every month.

Third, a special thanks to Michelle Hege from Desautel Hege Communications, for volunteering to facilitate the initial strategic planning session last year.

I encourage each of your to take advantage of the many opportunities that will be coming your way, such as Cher Merrill. Tamitha Anderson, Chris Bieker, Ron Nichols and myself did at the Portland Communicator's Conference. Look for Tamitha and Chris' reflections of the conference in this newsletter (if I had been on the ball, I would have been a good millenial, blogging during the conference from my cell phone). There is the last breakfast meeting for the 07-08 programming year. Also, consider attending the upcoming free teleseminar and roundtable on June 17 -- just another value of Spokane PRSA membership.

-Lance Kissler
chapter president

back to top

Massive social media sites are transforming the way people communicate. Marketers face the challenges of adapting to the changing media landscape and are presented with opportunities to forge a closer bond with their constituencies via two-way engagement campaigns. The session will discuss how rich interactive media combined with social distribution techniques can be deployed to reach massive online audiences. Learn how online video, virtual worlds and social network applications can be combined to represent your brand, engage millions of people online and achieve your business objectives.

Join us for this teleseminar over lunch, brought to you locally by Spokane PRSA, and stay after for a roundtable discussion with your peers. Want us to pack a lunch for you? Boxed lunches can be ordered in advance.

YOU WILL:

• Get introduced to the basics of social media for communicators.
• Be exposed to a demonstration of cutting-edge digital media communication strategies.
• Hear case studies about actual and practical implementation.
• Understand the investment of staff time and technology to create your social networking presence.
• Learn how your existing campaigns could be adapted to social media

Dmitriy Kruglyak is CEO of Starfish Apps and Trusted.MD, a social network for healthcare consumers, professionals and organizations. Trusted.MD has evolved as a natural outgrowth of The Medical Blog Network, the world's largest community of healthcare bloggers. He chaired the Healthcare Blogging Summits and coordinated development of HealthTrain, the "Open Healthcare Manifesto." Dmitriy also co-produced the first systematic study of healthcare blogger opinion and demographics. Prior to getting involved in health social media, Dmitriy held a variety of product development and marketing positions in the software industry.

Deborah Saline, APR, Fellow PRSA, VP, COO, PRWorks, Inc. (Moderator)

PARKING
Free, on-street parking is available for one hour. This area is enforced all hours by the City of Spokane; avoid getting a ticket by making certain to not go over the allotted time.

If you know that you might exceed the one-hour time limit, parking meters are available in all green lots ($0.75/hour). Parking map is attached.

Mapquest link:
www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&address=600+N+Riverpoint+Blvd&city=Spokane&state=WA&zipcode=&homesubmit=Get+Map

Riverpoint Campus Parking map:
www.spokane.wsu.edu/campusresources/Facilities/documents/parkingmap.gif

Date & Time | Tuesday, June 17 from 12-1:30 p.m.
Location | Spokane Academic Center, Room 30, WSU Riverpoint Campus, Spokane
Cost | Teleseminar is FREE for Spokane PRSA members; all others* are $15 cash/check at the door. (*all others include: national PRSA membership only, MARCOM membership only, and all others)
Boxed lunches are available for only $8.95/each. Please bring cash or check.
RSVP | Online by noon on Friday, June 13 at www.prsaspokane.org/take_survey.asp?id=12

back to top

Special thanks to Avista and Desautel Hege Communications, as our silver-level sponsors, who have sponsored the 2008 Day on the Job and the Magnum PR winetasting and auction later this year. Their support will directly benefit the area college students -- our future professionals.

back to top

Chris Bieker (boomer generation):
I left the conference realizing I had a lot of homework to do. A speaker during the opening session asked how many participants knew what "Twitter" was and told us we would all know by the end of the conference. I went to the conference to learn what I could about new communication technology. Much has changed since my college days, and our government agency tends to be technologically behind the private sector. I have to admit that despite being intrigued by new technology, I'm wary of technology for its own sake.

Craig Ostbo and Ted Morgan from the Koopman Ostbo marketing firm started me out comfortably by sharing how they used new technology to tell the old-world story of Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods.  I was impressed with how Koopman Ostbo integrated media relations, trade and consumer advertising, blogs and message boards as they interacted with customers, influencers and outreach support groups.  The Internet provided them a place to connect and get instant feedback from customers.  I was amazed at the numbers of customers who actually took time to interact.  How do people have time?  I'm trying to get my wholesome dinner on the table after a hard day at work and not writing to a company about their flour or cereal options.  Still, it made sense and I picked up some tips that might be helpful.  They have set up multiple websites tied to their advertising.  In this way, they can measure responses resulting from specific advertising.

I learned what "Twitter" is during the sessions, "Leveraging the Web to Manage and Measure Public Perception" by Kent Lewis, Anvil Media, Inc. and "Engaging Conversations Through New Mediums: A Roundtable Discussion of Social Media," by Blair Cook and Kimberly Myers, Nereus. Twitter is tool that allows for microblogging so you can blog to recipients who access the blog on their cell phones.  You can incorporate URLs, pictures and more.
Much of the seminar focused on aspects of social networking and how this fit in with PR.

I thought back to Rhoda Weiss, APR speaking at the 2007 PRSA Workshop last November and predicting that all communications would be by cell phone within a few years.  I think the younger generation is already there.  I don't carry a Blackberry or use my cell phone to send text messages.  But I can see where this technology is important to PR professionals.  The incident when Barack Obama made a comment about guns and religion while speaking in San Francisco is a good example.  The news was spread beyond the room instantaneously. 

I was impressed when, during a conference lunch, Lance sent a message to a friend to arrange a contact for my daughter who is looking for work in Portland.  It took a matter of seconds and more importantly he did it while the thought was fresh.  How often have I had to write down a task so I would remember to do it at a convenient time?  And then, my daughter’s new boyfriend scored major brownie points when he sent a “Hi Mom” text message to my daughter while we were browsing Portland’s famous Powell’s Bookstore.  I might be softening on this text messaging business.

While impressed with the technological prowess of the younger generation, I also reaffirmed some of my older generation values at the conference.  The first day’s luncheon speaker was Joel Stein, columnist for TIME Magazine and the Los Angeles Times.  Stein, certainly from the younger generation, gave a humorous presentation about intergenerational differences.  When asked his thoughts about the 24-hour news cycle, he responded that programs like CNN do a good job when there is real news but mostly they are filling time.  He said CNN makes him think of old people, like his grandmother they always have CNN on in the background.  Now wait a minute – I have CNN on in the background when I’m traveling for work and staying in hotels!  The next morning as I turned on CNN while getting ready for the day, I thought, “Who is he to tell me CNN is old people news?  He wrote articles about grocery shopping with Leonardo DiCapprio and about crawling around the attic with George Clooney.  That’s news?

In addition to the technology seminars, I also benefitted from two seminars that dealt with credibility and authenticity.  I brought back information to share with management regarding our agency’s communications.  My homework involves researching various websites and practicing with some of the tools.  I’ll also visit with our IT staff and see how I can stretch this government agency.  But I will also evaluate each tool with a bit of skepticism.  I’ll adopt technology that fits in with my life and my work but won’t try to fit myself to technology.

Tamitha Anderson (Generation X/Generation Y):
This was the second PRSA District Conference I have attended, and I was again thoroughly impressed with the level and variety of content and presenters. This year’s conference’s focus on technology was especially interesting to me, as a Generation X/Generation Y (I am on the bubble) who admittedly less enamored by the “latest and greatest” technology than my generational counterparts. Maybe it is my Traditionalist/Veteran parents and upbringing, maybe it is my personality, but I don’t know what a “twitter” is, don’t have a Facebook page and don’t see how people have the time to blog along with all the other demands of life! I knew I was going in with a steep learning curve on many of the newest tools, but was even more interested in learning how to put them all to work – without working 24 hours a day.

I came away from the conference with a long list of things to research and learn more about, but more than anything I came away viewing each of the new tools we learned about as just that – tools.  While several of the sessions did focus on the newest tools that can help us tell the stories of our organization and reach our audiences where they are, several also focused on more “traditional” areas of our profession, such as authenticity in your communications, dealing with corporate responsibility issues and how to communicate within your organization to ensure more consistency in message to external audiences too.

As public relations professionals, it is our job to stay up-to-date on these tools and how they can best serve our organizations, but it is also our role to look at each one objectively and how it will best fit with our overarching strategy.  While twitter can be a great way to spread the word about a new product, and a truly authentic blog can create a personalized touch point with your organization, none of these tools will best serve an organization without a strong communications strategy and understanding of your audiences and their needs.  By focusing on the strategy and incorporating the tools as they best meet the needs of your audiences, you can create a dynamic public relations and communications program that builds on your strengths, utilizes technology tools to your advantage and leaves your audiences more aware and engaged with your organization than before.  It is a puzzle approach – you don’t have to use every tool every time, pick the ones that work best, do those well and add on new tools as they fit.

So, am I a new technology convert? You won’t see me with a Facebook page any time soon, but I am starting to look at blogs and other tools for the future.  And I am noticing myself using some of these technologies more in my personal life too – who knows, a twitter or blog may be in my not-too-distant future.

back to top

Imageworks, a Columbia Basin-based business, presents Refresh '08. Nominate a website for an organization in Eastern Washington (or your own) and you could receive up to $5,000 in web design services to give the site a makeover. For more information, visit www.imageworksdigital.com/refresh/

Nominations are being accepted through June 6. (Although the site mentions Columbia Basin businesses, all organizations in Eastern Washington will be considered.)

back to top

Your Spokane PRSA board of directors met on Friday, May 9 to review the next steps in the strategic planning process, finalizing the plan before sending it out to the general membership for vote. The board will meet again in the beginning of June to review the membership vote and proceed with the next steps.

The board agreed to provide the June 17 teleseminar and roundtable to Spokane PRSA membership as a sample of the enhanced programming initiative that is a part of the 2008 strategic plan.

Are you interested in serving on the Spokane PRSA board for the 2009 year? Several board positions will be available! Contact a current board member for more information.

back to top

Have a story idea for the Spokane PRSA newsletter? Send your article, announcement or shameless plug to Lance Kissler by the 15th of the month.

Contact:
Lance Kissler
lkissler@pacificu.edu

back to top