The Risdall McKinney Public Relations (RMPR) blog has moved. Our blog “Highlighter” is now an integrated element of RMPR’s updated website.

With RMPR’s updated website, blog and overall social media efforts (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) there’s some definite perspective to share. On today and the future. Not just daily, stream-of-consciousness commentary and retweets, but some solid and substantive highlights. Entertaining, too.

And not just from me, but from our team, clients and agency friends. That’s you — especially, you. We want you to weigh in. Otherwise, it’s not really a conversation.

With the RMPR Highlighter, we hope to challenge your perceptions of public relations, offer insights into not only the marketing but also the management aspects of our discipline, and show how brand and reputation intersect.

Our posts might include glimpses of pop culture, fun tidbits on media personalities, opinions on current events, recaps of things we’ve attended and what we’re learning, and more. Through these posts and your comments, we think this will be a personality-laden exchange, which research says is one of the best ways to build loyal relationships. Certainly, it’s one of the most rewarding.

The third seminar in the 2010 Seminar Series focuses on Return on Investment. The seminar will cover how to set the right goals, use a variety of analytical tools, measure returns across an assortment of marketing channels and turn a company’s marketing budget into a powerful revenue generator.

The seminar will be on Thursday, July 29 from 8:30am – 12:00pm at Risdall Marketing Group in New Brighton. The agenda includes sessions in goal setting and forecasting, website analytics, tactical ROI and marketing ROI.

Cost to register is $250. For more information and to register, please visit http://risdall.com/seminarseries.

In another blow to Toyota’s reputation, Consumer Reports this week judged the 2010 Lexus GX 460 SUV a “Don’t Buy: Safety Risk” because of a problem experienced during standard emergency-handling tests. This is a rare designation for Consumer Reports; the last time its experts judged a vehicle’s performance not acceptable was in 2001, with the Mitsubishi Montero Limited.

Toyota moved swiftly this time, unlike the way it responded to the earlier acceleration issues. The auto manufacturer first replied with a statement, and then temporarily suspended sales of the GX 460 altogether. Toyota’s swift response benefited the organization in several ways.

1. It inspired confidence. Toyota has had a long-standing reputation for quality — until recently. By temporarily suspending sales of the GX 460, Toyota is telling customers that it will not allow any unsafe vehicles on the road.
2. The conversation is shortened. By following the best practice of taking lumps right away in a crisis situation, the number of days that the GX 460 issue is in the news should be minimal.
3. Toyota takes control. Rather than letting the Consumer Reports designation hang out there unanswered, Toyota has taken control of the conversation and responded in the most possible way possible.

Congratulations, Toyota, on learning the power of a swift response. Now let’s see you learn the power of increased transparency as well.

Looking ahead to 2010 can be daunting, if not downright depressing, after a difficult 2009. Obviously, many companies are happy to see 2009 over and gone. But as we head into 2010, it is time to consider whether your company is in survival or recovery mode. In order to make 2010 a success you need to plan for success. Here are four ways we all can improve in 2010:

1. Social Media Strategy – 2009 was a big year for social media. Twitter exploded onto the scene; Facebook continued to grow with 350 million active users and more than 35 million users updating their status each day. In 2009, did you ignore social media? Looking at 2010 it can be difficult to imagine how things will continue to change, but it is important to make sure there is room for flexibility in the budget. With or without a social media strategy your company needs the flexibility to react when it needs to. Spend some time looking at where you were successful online in 2009 and think about ways you can improve.
2. Media Relations Makeover – With the consolidation of so many news organizations, it is likely that many of the reporters covering a particular industry have moved out or moved on. Reporters are doing more with less. They are expecting you to do the same. Take a moment to review your media lists to ensure that you have the right reporters and expect that you may have to build some new relationships.
3. Crisis Communications Planning – It only takes a spark to get a fire going, so make sure that if the worst happens you are prepared. It is likely that your company faced staff reductions in 2009, so make sure your crisis plan is up to date to reflect staff changes. It is critical that when a crisis comes knocking that the appropriate people and systems are in place.
4. Budgets – Nobody likes to talk numbers this close to Christmas, but the reality is that having a solid budget in place can help make your life easier. Spend a few minutes looking over areas of your budget where you could cut costs. Review the trade shows you attend, examine your giveaways at events and determine if your vendors are delivering results.

In order to get the most bang for your buck it is important to extablish good habits in reviewing your communication plan on a yearly basis. Here’s to a successful 2010!

While some shoppers may be lining up at JCPenney stores this Friday at 4 a.m., this holiday season retailers are lining up to entice shoppers — online.

There already have been many pre-Black Friday deals this month to get shoppers in the buying mood. Tweets are being sent, Facebook pages are being updated to encourage interactivity, and the latest commercials are showing up on YouTube sites right away. In addition, many retailers are posting their Black Friday ads online to provide consumers a sneak peek of the deals that await — marking a shift from the tradition of not being able to see Black Friday ads until the actual day.

While all of this is resulting in relentless attention to price, Target still is focusing on its reputation. The retailer is promoting its speediness, service and relaxed return policy to give itself an edge with customers.

By using the Internet, retailers are engaging with consumers even more and providing them the choice to shop any way that they want to as well as plan out their Black Friday visits. Whether retailers focus on price or reputation, in the end, it’s the consumers who will be the winners in this year’s Black Friday battle.

What is your reputation worth?

Ask this question to Carrie Prejean, Tom Petters, Bernie Madoff or Michael Phelps and you might get some different yet profound answers. It is not difficult to identify those individuals who have damaged their reputation. For companies, those that understand the importance of managing reputation are often the most successful.

Often, a split-second decision can ruin a reputation forever. For celebrities attacks on reputation can mean losing endorsements. For a company it can mean the loss of millions in profits. Even a country’s reputation can be damaged by a single action. If it is so easy to ruin a reputation what is the value of protecting it?

EBay understands the importance of protecting its reputation. To provide customers the best experience online, EBay allows buyers to rate their online shopping experience. Potential sellers looking to push something online, that have poor ratings, will get overlooked because of their bad reputation. Isolating sellers with poor reputations in fact boosts EBay’s reputation as a place where people can get good customer service.

Putting a dollar value on a good name can be difficult, but it is better for a company to protect its reputation rather than try to clean up after its mistakes. Are you doing everything you can to protect your company’s reputation?

Reputation already damaged? Healing takes time.

If your reputation is already damaged the only thing that will heal it is time. However, there are three things you can do to begin to improve your reputation.

1. Apologize. If you messed up admit it. Say you are sorry to your employees, clients and customers. Let your stakeholders know that you were in the wrong, but that you are working to resolve the situation.
2. Improve. Don’t make the same mistake twice. Change your behavior and perform the way you are expected to perform
3. Maximize performance. Act the way you should have acted every day. Be patient and do good work and over time your reputation will improve.

If the bad reputation is a result of rumors find out who started the rumors. Be direct and honest. At the end of the day performance will hopefully outweigh any lies.

It’s been said by many people in the public relations industry that the press release is dead. In fact, the press release is NOT dead. Today, a well written press release may be more important than ever. The reason? SEO.

That’s right, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a phrase that may be new to some, but it should be on every PR person’s radar. SEO is how people, reporters specifically, find your Web site.

Being a pragmatist I understand that not everyone cares about SEO, so let me put it in context. A recent Ragan Communications and PollStream survey found that 49 percent of the poll’s 401 respondents believe press releases are “as useful as ever.” In fact, in many cases press releases are required for investor relations by the SEC’s notification rules.

So understanding that roughly half of the PR population thinks the press release is here to stay and that there are good reasons for using press releases, wouldn’t it make sense that PR professionals would learn how to incorporate SEO into our releases? There are many tips to optimize your press release to ensure that reporters find your release.

SEO can make the content of your web pages more relevant, more attractive and more easily read by search engines. Think about it…in your use of the Internet how often do you use a search engine…Monthly? Weekly? Multiple times a day? You can bet that reporters use search engines as often or more than you, so make sure you are targeting them with each release.

As if to prove the point that SEO is important PRSA is hosting a seminar on the Secrets of Search Engine Optimization on November 17. Check out PRSA.org for more information.

At the end of September, The Washington Post share social media guidelines with its staffers. These guidelines included restrictions on the use of Facebook and Twitter. The Post seemed concerned that the opinionated nature of social media wouldn’t mix well with the intended neutrality of a reporter’s duties.

Reaction to the Post’s guidelines has been mixed: the blogosphere condemned them, saying that traditional media doesn’t understand social media. On the other hand, some communications professionals and members of the media appreciated the guidelines, relieved that there was now help in navigating the personal and professional blending that occurs through social media.

I’m disappointed that the Post found it necessary to create guidelines at all. Just because social media provides another channel to share information doesn’t mean that common sense and standard decorum go out the window when it comes to understanding how to behave in a personal and professional realm. Be discreet. Think about the potential ramifications of what you say, write, publish, print, Tweet, post, blog or email.

For a full write up from PR Week, go here: http://www.prweekus.com/Washington-Post-social-media-guidelines-target-bias/article/151072/

As PR continues to transform from traditional to new media, the height of this transformation discussion seems to be around reaching out to bloggers vs. reaching out to traditional media contacts. This change requires many of the old techniques to be re-mixed, re-learned and re-thought. News Releases become Social Media Releases, Media Advisories become Tweets and Facebook Statuses, and Media Lists become….history?

A beautiful thing is happening here. Long gone are the days spending an hour pulling a media list using Cision to decide to which outlets you should pitch your clients announcement. Now, PR pros are back to doing what we were made to do- creating relationships with media in order to truly understand what they like to cover and bringing exclusives to their doorstep that they feel honored to publicize. With the unconventional style most bloggers exude, it would be very, very unwise to send a mass-email to a chunk of mommy bloggers. It was unwise before too, with traditional media- but many PR pros got lazy.

That said, if you’re looking to start pitching bloggers, there are a few things that you can do:

-Start reading blogs that cover your client’s industry
-Use websites such as Technorati, Google Blog Search and Bloglines to point you in the right direction
-Once you find a blog that you like, use their Blogroll to point you in the direction of other quality blogs
-Have Bloggers come to you, like PR Couture did on Twitter:

Tweet from @pr_couture

Also, remember that there’s nothing that can replace forming a 2.0 media list with your own hands. Be wary of using software like Cision, even though it has a option for Blog Contacts. From my own experience, I have found these lists to be very limited. No doubt they are scrambling to catch-up in this area, but right now- you’re better off getting your hands dirty and doing some digging on your own.

What are your own thoughts on this? Have you found any tools that you find particularly useful- or is it even about the tools anymore?