Trending: I hear people say they don’t read eNewsletters any more, but this past week has proved just the opposite

Posted on February 26, 2013 by chris

I’ve been so busy this past year that when Schroder PR Account Manager Sarah Funderburk would ask me every few months how the firm was going to celebrate its 10th anniversary, I’d just shrug my shoulders, shake my head and gaze back into my computer.

Lucky for me, I’m not in charge of anniversaries.

One afternoon a few weeks ago, I was wondering why Sarah kept asking me questions about an upcoming presentation as I was trying to get out the office door. Suddenly, my wife and our firm’s editorial director Jan Schroder walked in while the other teammates grabbed champagne and cupcakes. And it wasn’t even Friday!

“We just couldn’t let you go any longer without celebrating our 10th anniversary,” Sarah said. I grabbed a camera and snapped a group photo in our Rhodes Hall office.

Top: Bailee, Jan, Chris and Cara; Bottom: Sarah and Intern Brittany

Top: Bailee, Jan, Chris and Cara; Bottom: Sarah and Intern Brittany

It reminded me of a 1999 anniversary when my young Atlanta Intown newspaper team celebrated its fifth anniversary party. Then it was Jan who arranged the surprise party, including a visit from my Mom, sister and cousin from Augusta. Good thing Jan didn’t wait for the newspaper’s 10th anniversary as I left and started this PR firm three years later. (Atlanta Intown celebrates its 20th next year.)

So last week, just before we pressed “send” on the latest issue of Clear Messages, our PR firm’s company eNewsletter that included our champagne and cupcake team photo, I suggested we change the subject line to reflect our milestone. “Clear Messages:” it read. “Schroder PR celebrates 10th anniversary.”

A few minutes after we sent that email to exactly 2,195 folks – many of whom I threw in at the last minute out of my address book and from whom I hadn’t heard anything in years – my own email inbox began to fill up. Before the week was out, I had received 157 emails with personal congratulatory notes. Neighbors stopped me on the street, callers mentioned it at the beginning of phone calls and prospects even brought it up in the middle of new sales presentations. My surprise party continued all week long!

We counsel clients each week about how personal to reveal themselves in their social media campaigns. Many are uncomfortable promoting personal milestones, preferring instead to focus on business trends and announcements.

At Schroder PR, we’re as guilty as other professionals of becoming so enamored of modern social media platforms such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter that we sometimes neglect the simple beauty of an eNewsletter. We could have thrown a larger party, or mailed a printed announcement card, or even just posted a note on a social media page. But an eNewsletter allows colleagues to press “Reply” and send us a personal note and to relate a story of their own. And we can track who opens them and if they click through to our website.

I received emails from high school classmates, college roommates, clients, competitors, former bosses from my 1980s days at The Greenville News – even one from Wendy Binns, the current owner of Atlanta INtown, whom I hired out of college years ago.

When I was in the newspaper business, our firms could deliver a paper to your door, but we never knew if you opened it up and read anything in it. Our only data came when we did major market telephone surveys after the fact. Today, with eNewsletters, we can monitor and report specific numerical data in real time. For example, this edition of Clear Messages was opened by 590 recipients, for an open rate of 31%, which is 16% above the industry average, our electronic reporting tells us. We also know 93 of our recipients clicked through to read more at our firm’s website. I’m still waiting for a few particular friends to open it – you know who you are and, thanks to our email delivery monitoring, so do I!

In 2013, PR professionals are blessed with an ever-growing array of communication platforms through which to promote our clients and our causes. In the coming years, we’ll be helping clients use communication vehicles that are not even invented yet.

I’ll be curious to see how our team decides to promote itself for our 20th anniversary in 2023. Who could have guessed 10 years ago that a platform such as Twitter, which forces us to compress our comments into 140 characters, would be so popular today.

No matter what we end up doing, one element in our campaign will be the eNewsletter and it will still warm our hearts when you press reply and let us know in a few words – or characters – that you still care.

– Chris Schroder, Schroder PR

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Maker’s Mark gets a lesson in brand identity

Posted on February 18, 2013 by bailee

They can go without their favorite bourbon for a little while if they have to, but don’t you dare water it down.

That’s the consensus from the recent debacle in which Maker’s Mark found itself. Parent company of the Kentucky bourbon, Beam Inc., announced last week that they were becoming so successful, experiencing tremendous growing interest in their product, they could not keep up with the demand.

Their solution to combat their predicament – to sell the red wax-sealed bottles with diluted whiskey – was not well received.

According to their announcement, it takes over six years to make the batch of bourbon and a time restraint on supply like that would not be able to withstand the demand. In reducing the alcohol content to 84 from 90, they could fulfill their loyal customers’ bourbon supply needs.

Maker’s Mark’s loyal fans didn’t see eye to eye with their favorite distillery on this idea. Thus, a few days of consumer backlash later, Maker’s Mark has announced they are reversing their decision.

A tweet sent out on Maker’s Mark’s Twitter account linking to an explanation on the company’s website.

I don’t drink bourbon and I imagine I’m nowhere near the target market, but I also recognize Maker’s Mark missed its mark with this decision. In today’s world, we make consumer decisions based on more than the product being offered. Maybe the taste wouldn’t have been compromised with the dilution, but whenever they pulled one of those bottles off of a shelf in the future, their minds would drift back to last week’s announcement, remembering its diluted value.

Maker’s Mark has established itself as a well-known, high-quality Kentucky bourbon. I know what Maker’s Mark is and I could draw a picture of the bottle, even if I’ve never personally opened one. If its brand is now cluttered this way in my mind, it is most likely in many others’ too.

In our cluttered world, we are bombarded with messages whether we realize all of them or not. When a company is able to successfully position a brand in our minds and in turn, garner a large amount of customers, it’s not advised to change that message – or recipe.

A supply and demand chart for Maker’s Mark from Thomas Schroder, son of PR owner Chris Schroder. The bottle doesn’t fall far from the barrel with the Schroders. Check out Thomas’ post on Bourbonomics for more insight into Maker’s Mark’s dilemma at www.thomasschroder.com.

For those true fans of the bourbon that have been making purchase decisions based on this brand for some time, Maker’s Mark’s decision to change the quality and keep the price, affected the integrity of the brand. Customers replied to Maker’s Mark that they would withstand a shortage if they had to but they would not accept a diluted product.

Fortunately, Maker’s Mark heeded their customers’ outcries and kept their public relations blunder to just the one brand identity flop. By listening to their customers, they avoided diluting both their product and their brand.

From a business standpoint, an increase in demand and inability to increase supply isn’t necessarily a good thing. But from a public relations standpoint, there are good ways to address the problem without compromising your brand.

Hopefully other brands will take note as well: When your message is getting through loud and clear, don’t tone it down!

- Bailee Bowman

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A visit to Hawaii can teach a PR person a lot about the important practice of consistent storytelling. 

Posted on February 12, 2013 by chris

One of the most valuable tools modern public relations professionals employ is the ancient art of storytelling. At Schroder PR, we remind our new clients that if they bombard their prospects with numbers and facts, they will likely curtail their interest in working with them. Telling well-shaped stories, however, will attract clients and increase their desire to hire you.

I was reminded of the power of storytelling this past weekend, as we were hiking through the rain forests of Oahu in Hawaii. Driving to a remote location in the hills above Honolulu, our BikeHawaii guide, Jeremy, pointed to an “immersion school” nestled on the forested hillside. Within those walls, dozens of Hawaiian students take classes each day – all taught in the Hawaiian language. The only course in which the English language is spoken in these schools is English class.

A dozen years ago, only 0.1% of Hawaii residents spoke the native language, but a revival is now preserving the endangered language that only has five vowels and eight consonants – the smallest alphabet in the world.

Throughout our hike, our guide told stories about the land we were exploring and about the trees and bushes that were brought from foreign lands and were now choking out the native plants.

Hula at Oahu's Polynesian Center

Hula at Oahu’s Polynesian Center

When we attended a luau at the Polynesian Center, the emcee told stories that were handed down through 75 generations of his ancestors, back to the islands’ first settlers 1,500 years ago.

“Hawaii never had a written language,” he said. “Our history and culture was preserved only through story telling.”

Hawaii’s stories were often delivered through dance and song. Today, visitors are treated to these stories through the hula dance. This important verbal vehicle not only preserved the islands’ cultural tradition through repetitive performance, it increased its imprint on the minds of the Polynesian settlers by incorporating accompanying visuals of hand gestures and hip movements – each of which had its own meaning.

Though marketing and PR professionals have many more vowels and consonants available in our languages and countless more vehicles through which to deliver the messages in ever-emerging technologies, we are aided in same tools the Hawaiians have used for generations.

Whether teaching our clients how to deliver a speech, to produce a video or to take advantage of the latest social media platform, we often stress the importance of repetition, music, body movement, hand gestures and story telling.

No matter where you are in the world, if someone drapes a lei over your shoulders or says “Aloha” or begins to dance the hula, you immediately think: Hawaii. In our business, that’s called excellent branding, developed on the most remote islands in the world and preserved through some of the best storytelling ever developed on our planet.

– Chris Schroder,
Schroder PR

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Working in the Great Divide: PR and Journalism

Posted on January 28, 2013 by chris

When I was a reporter working for several daily newspapers in the 1980s, we instinctively fell silent when a company salesperson would walk by our desks. In those days, journalists were purists: newspaper salespeople wore nicer clothes, drove fancier cars and made lots more money, but we were more comfortable in our glow of righteousness.

Occasionally, that same cloud would enter our very own ranks. We were happy when a fellow reporter got a promotion to editor or if they took a job at a bigger newspaper. But every once in a while, a reporter would walk into the boss’ office and announce they were becoming a spokesperson for a politician or a company – or worse, that they were going to work for a PR firm. When that occurred, a pall would drift over our team for days. Usually, the departing reporter – his or her personal belongings packed quickly in a box – was awkwardly escorted out of the building shortly after announcing they were going over “to the dark side.”

I once worked for an editor who would take such an occasion to warn the remaining reporters that if they ever took a job in PR, they’d never work for a newspaper again. It was a hollow threat. That same editor a few years later welcomed back a writer who found he didn’t have the mettle for billable hours and client service.

I was reminded of this Great Divide this week when I read a Facebook post by a digital editor of the Fulton County Daily Report, a fine paper for which I used to work. Grayson Daughters wrote:

“I’d re-post articles from the SaportaReport here, such as the one by Saba Tesfanesh Long, on the domino effect of the now-open U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, but as I never know WHO the author of a Saporta Report article is working for/consulting for/receiving a paycheck from to write said articles, interesting as they might be, I’ve decided not to do that any longer. Sorry, kiddies.”

None of the writers at SaportaReport are able to afford to work full-time for this experiment in new journalism, even though – given the chance – we might prefer to. But Maria Saporta, whom I consider Atlanta’s most trusted journalist, holds our feet to the fire to make sure we disclose any potential conflicts to our readers, so they can make their decisions as to whether we are providing worthwhile commentary on issues of importance to metro Atlanta.

The ironic truth is when I worked for the Fulton County Daily Report in the 1990s, I had two jobs there: In the mornings, I would sit upstairs in front of an IBM laptop and manage the advertising staff. After lunch, I’d drift downstairs to my Apple computer and help edit news stories, scan photos, write headlines and design page layouts for the next day’s front news section. I didn’t even have to bathe in between gigs!

I love journalism and newsrooms. My heart aches when I pick up the morning papers in my driveway and see them barely breathing from a lack of advertising. Journalism was a noble profession. It still is. It’s just a challenged one.

Not only does social media offer an informational platform to anyone who can write or post a photo, my Wall Street Journal features a weekly editorial column by a former presidential aide who raised hundreds of millions of dollars this past year to unseat Democratic candidates. When I watch my Sunday morning television news panels, I listen as journalists debate lobbyists and PR professionals.

The lines are so blurred these days, it’s difficult for regular readers to know the difference, except for the occasional italicized disclosure at the bottom of articles, stating that the writer works here, represents someone there or authored a book on a subject that possibly sounds impressive.

And that, I guess, is the point: We’re all human. Each one of us is a bundle of beliefs, biases and contradictions. When newspapers were founded in 18th century America, they were started by someone with a particular voice who pushed an entertaining – and hopefully profitable – point of view. Readers bought several papers, but they tended to believe the ones that aligned with their own political leanings.

Somewhere along the way, journalists began to proffer a higher calling: objectivity. News stories could not express an opinion; they had to be balanced. Only editorials could opine. But that was just too high and mighty of a brand to promote. Reporters and editors are humans. They make decisions about which quote to feature first and how to end an article. According to the dictionary, those are not objective decisions, they are “dependent on the human mind for existence” and, thus, subjective.

I really enjoy public relations. We assist organizations in shaping messages that help customers understand what services and benefits the firms offer. Our profession even provides a decent enough income that some of us can afford the time to work part-time in our first love, journalism.

Judging by recent analysis, our website is attracting thousands more readers this month than we did in any month last year. We think we are building momentum – and trust. We are proud of our efforts. We do have families and other jobs and hobbies and groups to which we belong. We provide paragraphs at the ends of our articles reporting what other endeavors in which our writers are involved. It is not a complete description of our personalities or beliefs. It is merely a glimpse into our souls.

Thank you for reading our columns. We appreciate your feedback. If you choose to share our columns with your social media friends or co-workers, thank you for doing so. If you choose not to, well, that’s also fine. You have exercised your own judgment – and here at SaportaReport that is a right we respect very much.

– Chris Schroder
Schroder PR and SaportaReport!

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Private Blunders and Public Apologies

Posted on January 21, 2013 by sarah

We all make mistakes, and I’d like to think we all apologize when we’re in the wrong. Fortunately, not many people notice when I make a mistake – but when newsmakers such as Lance Armstrong, Manti Te’o, Anthony Weiner or a CEO of a major corporation make a blunder, the whole world pays attention.

The reputation of an organization or a celebrity is an intangible asset, but it’s an extremely important and valuable one. Many CEOs, actors and sports stars face a crisis situation with the potential to seriously damage their good reputations. When in this situation, a public apology is often the beginning of the road to redemption – whether through a statement, a press conference or an appearance on Oprah or Katie Couric’s television show.

This hoax was perfect for Internet comedians – this GIF was one of many out there.

I thought about writing this post when I read that the alleged “mastermind” of the “dead girlfriend hoax” of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o – Ronaiah Tuiasosopo was going to tell his side of the story this week. Te’o has already scheduled an interview with Katie Couric. In a sermon last Sunday, Tuiasosopo’s father, a pastor at Oasis Christian Church, told his congregation that he was learning to say “No comment” in 20 languages!

With my crisis training at Schroder PR, the first thing I thought was – that’s the last thing he should say! Maybe 20 years ago, “no comment” was the advisable go-to response for responding to hard-hitting questions, but not anymore. The world has changed. When the public reads that phrase now, it assumes the party is guilty and being evasive.

I do think it’s smart that the whole Tuiasosopo family is planning to meet to figure out when and how to tell Manti’s “side” of the hoax story. They should get the complete story gathered in an understandable narrative and then decide who is going to be the family spokesperson. Whoever is behind the hoax, “No comment” isn’t going to pass muster with the public and the media – both of which feel duped. Tuiasosopo isn’t well known, or even a little known, and he and his family are already under the media spotlight. It will be very interesting to see how they plan on responding – and hopefully apologizing.

Another recent fiasco in the news is Lance Armstrong speaking about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. He sat down with Oprah (who else) and addressed the doping scandal, years of accusations of cheating and the drugs throughout his career.

Lance apologized on the show – and that’s worth something right? An apology to all those he inspired, competed against and beat probably came to welcome ears. Throughout the first night’s interview, Armstrong appeared “defiant, distant, difficult” and “arrogant, unaware, flippant.” He obviously had a coach – and the plan was to appear open and honest. If you saw the interview, you could tell it was rehearsed, until he apparently went off script on the second night.

On some level, Armstrong seemed to understand that he had to make a perfunctory admission – but that’s all he gave. In my opinion, a person who is genuinely sorry doesn’t say they looked up the definition of the word “cheat” and then declares he doesn’t think he meets that definition.

Another interesting part of the interview was Armstrong referring to himself in third person. He seemed to be trying to distance himself by calling himself “Lance Armstrong,” and trying to separate “that part of my life” from “this part of my life.” Given his celebrity, we all expected him to be media-trained, but I can imagine his PR team wasn’t thrilled with the way he appeared on camera. Even with the best team and the most media training – you can’t prevent someone who has no remorse from giving a fake apology and diminishing his or her brand.

There may not be just one way to publicly apologize, but we definitely have witnessed a lot of examples of what not to do. In giving an apology, choosing the appropriate venue or outlet is important. Armstrong could’ve conducted his first interview since being stripped of his titles with anyone – but he chose Oprah, assumedly because he thought it would be the best chance for an image revival.

CEOs have internal and external audiences – including investors, employees, customers, competitors and media – to worry about. Waffle House CEO Joe Rogers Jr. recently came under public scrutiny when he was accused of sexual harassment. He managed it remarkably well, telling his employees about the scandal before it broke in the media. In his apologies to the media, he spoke of the pain and embarrassment he’d caused his wife and family – showing sympathy for others, not himself. He accepted wrongdoing, although he denied any sexual misconduct.

Once a press conference, television appearance or other event is scheduled, it’s important to prepare an open and transparent apology. Showing respect for victims and accepting blame should be a perfectly human response, but demonstrating genuine action that corrects any wrongdoing would be divine.

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Between the Commas

Posted on January 15, 2013 by chris

As we were telling a potential new client yesterday, it’s all about what’s “between the commas!”

In the summer of 2005, I was struggling to find the right words when an important new client’s chief marketing officer proudly handed me a large three-ringed binder that contained the official branding statement for which his firm had obviously paid a handsome sum.

“This is our Branding Book,” he said. “It contains our Branding Statement.” My client had obviously paid thousands of dollars to engage his top executives in months-long process of introspection that resulted in the delivery of this heavy book that had since sat prominently on his bookshelf.

“What do you think of it?” he asked me.

I faced a big dilemma. Speak honesty and risk insulting his large investment and possibly lose a wonderful client. Or tell a white lie, praising the lofty branding statement and then from then on be saddled with infusing that into public relations documents.

“It’s a nice statement,” I said, after staring at the 10 words for what seemed like an eternity. “It conveys a soaring feeling, but it does not distinguish you from any of your competitors. You will never ever see that sentence ‘between the commas.’ ”

“What do you mean?” he said, looking at me with puzzlement. “What do you mean by ‘between the commas?’ ”

“It’s not a natural phrase that will end up being used in any story we place in newspapers or magazines. We’ll need to come up with something more accessible,” I said. And we did. The phrase we eventually sculpted for the firm not only appeared in many publications, a Google search today returns nearly a thousand references to those exact words – all associated with our client.

Just yesterday, we were meeting in our Peachtree Street office in Midtown with a potential new client. I was excited to see my associates begin to participate more in the interviewing process. At one point, our editorial director was answering a question about whether we could help this 10-year-old firm with branding.

She was telling the story of how branding is important, but needs to be accessible. She said, “it’s really important to develop what is …” She paused and looked at me and asked, “Did you make up ‘between the commas?’ ” I smiled and quickly said, “I think I may have,” before she continued explaining the concept to our guests.

I’m quite sure someone else said those words before me. Thanks to a Google search, I can see that other people have been quoted using those words, but they are dated after I first uttered them in my clients office eight years ago. I think some band has a song by that name now. And a bright young college student started a blog by that same name last year after crafting the phrase herself in a high school newspaper column.

No matter its origin, the concept is simple and very important. Today’s business professionals are often very good at what they do, but they stumble when telling people what that is, exactly. Skilled at their crafts, a professional must also communicate clearly what benefits their potential new clients will receive when hiring them.

It’s one of the most important gifts we give to our clients: the confidence to quickly express in a few actionable, expressive words what they do that distinguishes them from their competitors. If we are successful, the reporters who write about our clients will appreciate those words and place them in the first paragraph of their stories, right after the name of our client … between the commas.

If we’re effective, years from now, when our clients Google themselves, those words should be tucked in the first line or two of results – even if Google doesn’t present its concise results with punctuation marks.

– Chris Schroder

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Announcement by The Associated Press to include Samsung-sponsored Tweets is part of an evolving platform

Posted on January 7, 2013 by bailee

The Associated Press announced it will begin having sponsored tweets on its Twitter feed and Samsung will be the first company to take part in it.

Twitter has had advertising for some time in the form of Promoted Tweets – tweets purchased by advertisers that appear in targeted users’ Twitter feeds. The Promoted Tweets are denoted with the sponsor’s name or a little orange box and white arrow so they can be clearly identified on users’ feeds.

In addition to Tweets, sponsors may have promoted trends on Twitter.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Twitter updated its terms of service in 2010 to ensure that advertisers only promoted their tweets in this Promoted Tweet format rather than infusing spam-like promotions through individual users’ accounts. AP’s Samsung announcement seems to fall somewhere in the middle.

Samsung will provide sponsored tweets through AP’s primary Twitter account during the upcoming 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Leveraging Samsung as a sponsor for this high-profile tech event might help expand advertising beyond an individual Twitter feed and make sense to the public.

AP stated in a release: “The effort builds on AP’s expansion into new advertising for mobile and social media.”

In the past, new advertising platforms for mobile and social media has developed traction with the media and and sometimes backlash from the public. Do you remember the Instagram debacle of 2012? Perhaps ‘debacle’ is an exaggeration, but Instagram’s moment in the spotlight certainly caused a stir among my social media community.

Infographic and GIF from fastcodesign.com describes Instagram’s impact

When Instagram announced new terms of service in December 2012, users took to their social media accounts to complain. The new terms of service implied that Instagram would be able to take users’ photos and use them in promotions. The social media community panicked. My own social media feeds were flooded with pleas from others to delete my account to protest the insanity.

Instagram quickly retracted the new terms and released an apology and clarified what it had intended. Titled, “Thank you, and we’re listening,” the blog post stated that legal documents were easily misunderstood and that it would clarify its meaning in a less elusive, and more concrete manner. Instagram experienced the downside to presenting the public with a big idea rather than exact details – especially when it comes to people’s privacy and their understanding of advertising.

As Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, has seen in the past, people become uncomfortable with social media and advertising worlds colliding. In Instagram’s blog post apology, it made a simple, yet – I believe –necessary statement: “From the start, Instagram was created to become a business.”

Because we have incorporated our personal lives so much into social media, it is often forgotten that social media exists as a business commodity first and foremost – perhaps because ways to monetize the new media platforms often come months and years after their launch. Unfortunately, the medium has grown so quickly, it may take a while for perceptions to catch up. The Associated Press and Instagram are not the first to discuss their advertising tactics with social media and they will not be the last.

As the WSJ article eloquently states in its coverage of AP’s announcement, “plenty of media companies have very popular Twitter feeds and commercial departments keen to find new revenue sources.”

As social media’s audience and influence grows, we cannot expect money to stay out of the conversation. If we want our media to continue meeting our needs, we cannot always seem so astonished and offended when they announce they need money in order to do so.

  – Bailee Bowman

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Trending

Posted on January 2, 2013 by chris

Many things have changed since Schroder PR begin 10 years ago; many have not

Ten years ago this week, Schroder PR opened its doors to provide writing and media relations services to a few select clients. Since then, a lot has changed in the business of public relations, but a few enduring principles remain more important than ever.

When we opened our doors to the public in 2003, we were already serving a few commercial real estate developers and soon were hired by one of the two largest law firms in town.

At that time, the primary request of our clients was that we carefully craft well-written press releases and provide them media counsel. Since then, the media world has exploded to an immediate online delivery of news from many news sources – including posts by many writers who have had no professional news training and are not professionally edited.

A decade ago, clients were still trying to understand the potential of the “world wide web” and we were often asked to help re-write their websites with new copy that would attract a prominent listing in developing platforms called “search engines.” Google was still a small private company that was a couple of years from going public.

The word blog was less than five years old in 2003 (it was coined in 1999 from its original term of weblog). Managing partners of large firms were trying to understand how to follow and regulate their use by leading-edge partners in the firms. It wasn’t long before our clients were asking us to assist them to host blogs on their own websites.

Networking and business development is a vital part of any business, particularly a new firm such as ours. Back then, the primary tool of business development was the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Book of Lists. A few days after we opened our doors, a new web-based platform was launched that changed everything. It was called LinkedIn. Today, LinkedIn is a primary business development tool, though we still usually begin our new year making lots of notes in the printed Book of Lists, which is also available in electronic form.

Email and instant messaging had long replaced the idle chatter and gossip around the proverbial water cooler. Then in 2004, we all re-learned an entirely new way to peer into the lives and thoughts of others with the launch of Facebook. Although office productivity initially took a big hit with its growth, we now spend many hours a week updating business pages on Facebook for our clients.

In 2003, we began helping clients produce videos to explain their service offerings. New computer editing tools brought down the cost of this formerly cost-prohibitive medium. Ten years ago, we were still advising clients to trim their videos to five to eight minutes in length. Then in 2005, YouTube launched and video exploded. Today, based on Pew and Poynter research, we caution clients to edit their videos to no longer than 60 seconds and we help manage their YouTube channels.

While Schroder PR has always been an advocate for concise use of the English language, we all learned to edit even tighter in 2006 when Twitter reduced our world of communication not to 140 words, but 140 characters!

As Schroder PR moved offices several times around Midtown Atlanta, we were careful to always provide a cork bulletin board above the desks of our teammates so they could post personal photos and important lists. Now we primarily use the cork boards to soften the sound in more efficient working conditions while our team is busily posting photos and lists for our clients on Pinterest, which launched in 2010.

While many things have changed in 10 years, many principles still endure. Yes, our team spends much of our time monitoring social media for our clients, but we still spend a surprising amount of time editing press releases that we can post online. Yet, we rarely send press releases to reporters. Today we boil story pitches down to one-page backgrounders full of bullet points or send short emails or Twitter pitches.

Though we have so many new tools with which to communicate, we’ve found there is an increasing need to have regular face-to-face meetings with our clients. Client service remains the most important facet of our business and in this new year, we hope to spend more time in person with our clients than ever before. That’s where the magic in this business really happens.

The proper use of the English language is still paramount. Each of of our teammates has an AP Stylebook on their desks. We did try the electronic version for a while, but the book is still our bible.

When we start working with a new client, we still spend the first few weeks and months helping to sharpen their “message” and “position.” When we launched our own website in December 2002, we introduced our company’s slogan and mission, which endures – perhaps with even more significance – to this day: “Clear Messages in a Cluttered World.”

– Chris Schroder

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Unfortunately, we’re easily reminded that crises occur daily

Posted on December 3, 2012 by sarah

Watching Good Morning America Monday morning while I got ready for work, I was captivated by the recent tunnel collapse in Japan. I sat with half-blow-dried hair and watched George Stephanopoulos report on the tragic scene.

Nine people – eight of them burned – were pulled from vehicles crushed in the collapse 50 miles from Tokyo. An aging “anchor bolt” that came loose, according to ABC News, likely caused the accident. The bolt caused the 1-ton concrete slabs, as many as 150 of them, to collapse. When rescue workers initially tried to reach the victims, smoke hampered their efforts. One firefighter told reporters they heard an explosion inside the tunnel and decided they had to retreat.

After saying a prayer for those affected by this catastrophe, I began to think about how absurd it was that one bolt caused such a horrific scene. One small piece of the infrastructure faulted and the entire thing was compromised.

I was instantly reminded of an incident that occurred here while I was still in college. In 2009, a parking deck in Midtown collapsed – because of one bolt. The June 29th Centergy Parking Deck fortunately had a different outcome – surprisingly, no one was injured. I didn’t know about the collapse at the time, but upon joining the Schroder PR team, I quickly became very familiar with it.

A Schroder PR client happened to be the property manager of the building and parking deck, so Chris was immediately on site to assist the client and other stakeholders involved. He worked with reporters, making sure they were given timely, accurate and detailed information. He also had to focus on another audience – the owners of the damaged cars from the deck.

Chris advised the client to keep each audience updated as much as possible, sending emails and making intercom announcements the first day and distributing a fact sheet the second day. Our client’s transparency through the entire process proved to be important in gaining the confidence of all parties involved and they were ultimately cleared of any liability.

During a crisis, it’s easy to get caught up in the moment. We recommend clients prepare communication strategies before a crisis happens, but there are some things for which no one can prepare. When tragedies occur, we advise clients gather as munch information as possible before releasing anything, but you have to communicate early, even if you merely have to say,  “It’s too early for us to know the cause of this crisis.”

As Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just said in this weekend’s AJC: “Expect a fog of war environment. It’s always going to be a little confusing … The final thing is communication. You’ve got to be upfront with the public. You’ve got to over-communicate. You’ve got to tell them what you know, what you don’t know and when you’re going to find out what you don’t know. You’ve got to do it in real time.”

The accident in Japan brings to light just how easily a cog in the machine can do so much damage. Companies need to be prepared for a quick response to best assist those affected when things do go wrong. Victims need information during a crisis, either via media or direct contact. If companies fail to provide information swiftly – the repercussions could be disastrous.

Each of my colleagues is trained and prepared to help our clients through any crisis that may arise. In a little more than the year I’ve worked here, I’ve seen clients have employee crises, shootings and even social media fiascos! Crises happen every day – are you ready?

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PR Practitioners’ Solutions: Wizard or Man Behind the Curtain?

Posted on November 26, 2012 by bailee

Feeling jet-lagged after a mere one-hour flight from Memphis to Atlanta Sunday afternoon, I took to the couch in my apartment to relax and neglected my suitcase full of dirty laundry.

I turned on the TV and looked for a good Christmas movie. Nothing. But the next best thing was on – “The Wizard of Oz.”

Growing up, “The Wizard of Oz” was one of the staple VHS tapes in our home. My mom grew up loving the movie as one of the first broadcasts on color television so it was instilled in me to love it as well. We watched it every time it came on TV, I dressed up as Dorothy for multiple Halloweens, and “Wicked” was the first show I saw on Broadway. I stared at the laundry to be done and succumbed to nostalgia instead and watched the “Wizard of Oz” for what must have been the 100th time.

Now six months into my PR career, watching the decades-old movie had more meaning than ever before – and I don’t mean how incredibly un-scary the flying monkeys actually are. I noticed some stark parallels between the mysterious Wizard of Oz and the public relations practitioner.

Glinda (the good witch) sent the struggling foursome – Dorothy, The Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow – to Emerald City to see the mysterious Wizard of Oz, whom she was confident would solve their problems.

Our clients may not sing and skip down a yellow brick road to come see us, but in more cases than not, they are referred to come see us because they have some sort of a problem – whether it’s a “flying monkey” crisis in media relations, a need for better brand identity, or just a website that needs a facelift.

Regardless of how they come to us or why they come to us, they often come with an image of public relations much like the foursome’s image of the Wizard of Oz. They may not be exactly sure how they can be helped, but they trust in what will be offered.

When the foursome (and Toto) enter Emerald City and finally face the mysterious Wizard of Oz in his chambers, they aren’t greeted with quite the same repertoire and helpfulness that the lovely Glinda provided them. Instead, they stand in front of a large curtain with the imposed image of a floating head and an intimidating, booming voice echoing from every direction to speak to them.

They may have finally reached the Wizard, but their journey isn’t over yet. In order for the Wizard to grant their wishes, they are sent out on a treacherous task to capture the Wicked Witch of the West’s broomstick. To me, this sounded very similar to what some PR firms often require for their services – lengthy audits of an organization’s marketing and public relations strategies, surveys, and multiple interviews. Essentially, more hoops to jump through for a problem to be solved.

If you’ve seen the movie (or read the book), you know the plot climax follows (Spoiler alert!). In the Wicked Witch of the West’s chambers, Dorothy’s time nearly runs out in the sand timer until she splashes the Wicked Witch with water and the witch melts to her demise. The group grabs the broomstick and heads back to see the Wizard – maybe now he will solve their problems.

As they enter the Wizard’s chambers for the second time – ready for some results now that they have held up their part of the bargain – they are told to go away and come back tomorrow. Disappointed and disgruntled, the group begins to leave until Toto unveils what’s behind the curtain.

Amidst the smoke and curtain with a floating head projected onto it, the booming voice calls out, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

Behind the curtain sat a mere man – not mysterious or grandiose at all. While not what the group expected to find after all of the hype, the Wizard of Oz proves to be much more sympathetic and rational than they initially assumed. He speaks to them normally and is able to provide them with solutions. The problems are resolved as he and Dorothy fly away in the hot air balloon and the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man are left to run Emerald City.

In PR, there are a lot of “mysterious wizards” and there are also some “man behind the curtain” types. While the PR practitioner is certainly capable of conveying an extravagant image like the Wizard created to impress or intimidate his “clients,” I have seen that the most effective mechanism for communicating with clients is to be the simple person behind the curtain.

Working in a smaller size firm allows this to come more naturally, but it is something larger firms should seek as well. The intimidation factor should be targeted to clients’ competitors while the honest man behind the curtain should be the persona presented to a client. Being honest and providing targeted, simple solutions for clients solves problems more efficiently and realistically than a falsified image who makes clients jump through hoops.

Toto is still my favorite character after all of these years. Not only did he unveil the truth about the Wizard of Oz, saving the foursome from rejection, he also managed to find an escape from the crisis of those terrifying (at the time) flying monkeys.

- Bailee Bowman

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