I read a ton of business-related books.  If it has to do with branding, retail, or Starbucks, there’s a good chance I’ll read it.  A friend of mine recently recommended that I check out “The Trump Card,” Ivanka Trump’s first book.

To be clear, I’m a huge fan of Ivanka.  I admire her professionalism and passion for the real estate industry.  Many people will argue that her privileged upbringing undoubtedly helped her in her career, but I’m a firm believer that you are in charge of your own destiny.  After all, you have to be pretty darn intelligent and disciplined to get into Wharton.

So eagerly, I picked up “The Trump Card” at the local library one afternoon.  I enjoyed many aspects of the book, particularly the chapters that discussed the important of building relationships.  This is a subject Ivanka is clearly well-versed in, and I commend her for making the most of her connections. 

She’s also not afraid to get dirty…literally.  In fact, if you follow her on Twitter (@IvankaTrump), she often posts pictures of herself at various job site locations.  In “The Trump Card,” Ivanka discussed how she always knew from a young age that she wanted to build things, so it’s no surprise that she’s now spending her days wearing a hard hat.

The cover of "The Trump Card." Image via Simon & Schuster.

I started thinking about how these principles could be applied to social media and public relations.  If you’ve worked in PR long enough, you know it’s not a glamorous field.  In fact, a lot of time is spent “blocking and tackling,” (a phrase we often use at Doe-Anderson) reaching out to reporters and bloggers, staying on their radar and keeping them up-to-date on what’s going on with our clients.  And yes, sometimes, we even have to roll up our sleeves and get a little dirty. (If you’ve ever put together hundreds of media kits, or worked at a special event, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.)

Cultivating relationships, in my opinion, is what social media and public relations are all about.  This isn’t an easy task but with a little time and patience, you can start to build those important connections.  The old adage “You get what you give” rings true as well.  We often tell our clients that they’ve got to communicate with their customers and engage in conversations with them. 

Good, old-fashioned hard work never goes out of style and is certainly the key to having a successful social media or PR campaign.  And like Ivanka Trump, you can be professional and polished while doing it.

Image taken from Ivanka's Twitter account.

A few short years ago, I was spending most of my days traipsing around the Indiana University campus, making the daily trek to Ernie Pyle Hall, otherwise known as the School of Journalism.  You could often find me there slumped behind a Mac, typing ferociously in order to meet some sort of deadline, with a huge cup of specialty coffee dangerously close to the keyboard. And I was never without two things:  my oversized black Prada tote bag and my dearly loved (though faux) Ugg boots.  

During my senior year at IU, I was introduced to blogging.  I had enrolled in an Online Journalism course (still a very new concept at the time) and one of our assignments for the semester was to create and populate a blog with content.  I enjoyed writing and reporting, so I eagerly approached this task. We were required to have a theme and a name for our blog.  “Deconstructing Pretty” followed current fashion trends with a focus on the business aspect of the industry.  I’ll never forget my first post—I wrote about Sarah Jessica Parker’s commercials for The Gap and how much of a financial impact the ads could have on the struggling store chain. 

Needless to say, I never imagined how much that assignment would shape my professional life. Coming from a journalistic background, blogging was an entirely new world to me.  I found myself asking questions like, “What do you mean I don’t need to quote three sources?” and “Is someone really going to care what my opinion is?”  I had spent years perfecting my style of writing, which obviously did not include my personal feelings on the subjects I was reporting on. 

The famed Ernie Pyle Hall on the Indiana University campus in Bloomington, Indiana. Image by the IU School of Journalism News Department.

When the semester was over, I continued working on “Deconstructing Pretty” and did so even after graduation.  I didn’t have a ton of readers, but a nice comment here and there was enough to encourage me to keep writing.  Eventually though, my life started to get busier and blogging wasn’t as much of a priority as it once was.

About a year after I was hired at Doe-Anderson, I started contributing to the company’s blog and discovered how much I had missed blogging.  It was a welcome addition to my other duties at the agency and I saw it as an opportunity to improve my online writing skills.  Working on the Doe-Anderson blog  and The Social Enthusiast has pushed me to keep up with the latest trends in social media and how I might be able to use these strategies for my public relations clients.  It has challenged me to strive harder to write interesting posts that will be entertaining as well as helpful to those who read them.

I’ve come a long way from the halls at Ernie Pyle.  Not only do I not wear fake Ugg boots anymore, I also don’t question my writing abilities as much as I used to and blogging is a big reason for that.

Faux Uggs, or "Fluggs" as they're often called.

The fine art of etiquette doesn’t seem to be appreciated as it once was.  I’ve always enjoyed reading the Miss Manners column and reading her advice to our everyday quandaries.  I’m often amazed at the topics people write in about (one recent column involved a very nosy librarian).  If Miss Manners were answering questions about social media etiquette, I think it might look a little something like this. 

   Dear Miss Manners,

   Like most everyone else on the planet, I have a Facebook profile.  I mostly use to keep in touch with family and friends, socialize, and occasionally indulge in Farmville.  However, I’ve recently started getting friend requests from people I went to high school with (I’m too much of a lady to tell you how long it’s been since I graduated from high school!).  I don’t really want these people knowing my personal business.  Am I obligated to ‘friend’ them?

    Signed,

    Private Polly in Pittsburgh

   Dear Private,

   No, you are not obligated to add them to your network.  While Facebook is a wonderful tool to connect with people, you have to be aware of how much personal information you’re putting online and more importantly, who has access to it.  Don’t feel bad for not accepting their requests—it’s not like you’ll probably ever see them again.  After all, Facebook has pretty much made class reunions obsolete.

   Dear Miss Manners,

   I’m a public relations consultant, and one of my clients is a local restaurant.  Recently, someone wrote a rather scathing review of us on a popular food website.  How should I handle this?

   Sincerely,

   Spin Sister in Sacramento

   Dear Spin,

   It’s always good to have a system in place for dealing with bad PR.  Think about this situation as a friendship.  If a friend were upset with you, how would you handle it?  Hopefully, you would reach out to them and graciously offer an apology.  Reply back to Mr. Meanie’s post and communicate how very sorry you are about his recent experience at the restaurant and offer to make it up to him with a coupon, a discounted dinner, or a complimentary dessert.  You might also ask him specifically what the restaurant could do to improve their customer service.  Hopefully, this action will resolve the situation. But that being said, some people are just trolls.  And sometimes it’s better just to leave them alone.  They’ll go away eventfully.

   Dear Miss Manners,

   What’s your opinion of Twitter etiquette? 

   Signed,

  Ready to Tweet in Reno

   Dear Ready,

   Miss Manners doesn’t tweet a lot, but she does have a few pieces of advice.  Number #1:  It’s always a good idea to follow those who follow you first.  Exceptions to the rule:  spammers and “questionable” people.  Number #2:  Don’t just pump out information about yourself.  Try to engage in conversations with others—ask them about what’s going on with their lives.  People love to talk about themselves.  Number #3:  Grandma’s “golden rule” still applies on Twitter:  If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

So you see, dear readers, etiquette is alive and well, even in the digital realm.  I’m curious—what social media etiquette issues have you dealt with recently? 

It’s always important to be a lady--or gentleman—when navigating the sometimes tricky world of social media. Image by nelu_b via Flickr.

“I think I know why you love cupcakes so much,” my boyfriend said to me one evening, as we were enjoying a rich vegan chocolate cupcake from Whole Foods.

“Oh yeah,” I replied.  “Why do you think that is?”

“Well, they’re pretty, they’re small, and they’re very ‘girly,’” he said. “They remind me of you.”

His ‘sweet’ comments were rewarded with a kiss on the cheek.

Now, I’m not someone who recently jumped on the cupcake bandwagon. I’ve been a fan of the bite-sized sugary snacks for some time.  The sweet treats have exploded in popularity in recent years, due in part to famous bakeries like Magnolia Bakery in New York.  Cupcakes have become part of pop culture too, with appearances on SATC and Entourage.

Call me crazy, but the popularity of cupcakes seems to coincide with the rise of social media.  I once heard someone say that during economic downturns, there are few items that see an increase in sales:  liquor, lipstick, and comfort foods. Obviously, cupcakes fit into one of those categories.  As we’ve seen, social media has blossomed within the last few years, due in part because many businesses have opted not to spend money on traditional advertising and PR campaigns. 

I stumbled upon an interview with Mari Luangrath, the owner of Foiled Cupcakes in Chicago. It turns out, Ms. Luangrath uses only social media to promote the bakery.  Word-of-mouth marketing (something Doe-Anderson knows a lot about) has helped Foiled Cupcakes to become one of the most successful shops in the country.

Foiled Cupcakes celebrates the Stanley Cup with these Chicago Blackhawks-themed cupcakes.

 Sprinkles Cupcakes is certainly not the first business to use Facebook to communicate with their customers, but the Beverly Hills-based bakery has made the most of the world’s largest social networking site.  Many small businesses have latched on to Facebook to promote themselves for two reasons:  a.) With 300 million users, it’s pretty safe to say that’s where your potential customers are spending their free time and b.) A Facebook profile is cheap to operate and maintain, unlike a website.

According to my research, the best blog out there for all things cupcake-related is Cupcakes Take the Cake.  They’ve scored an unbelievable amount of press (The New York Times, CNN, and Real Simple are just a few media outlets that have featured the blog) as well. 

As demonstrated here, if you utilize social media channels properly, it can be the icing on the cake for your product, service or brand. 

Check out these lovely Twitter-inspired cupcakes.

I can’t stress enough how important a LinkedIn profile is.  I personally know of people who have gotten jobs, freelance work, and other opportunities based on their profile.  Here are five tips that can make your profile shine above the rest:

 1.  Keep your profile up-to-date.   This might seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t include their most current places of employment. With recruiters and HR professionals checking LinkedIn frequently, you’re not giving them the best impression of you if your profile doesn’t have the most current information. 

 2.  Write—and ask for—recommendations.  At Doe-Anderson, we like to say that word-of-mouth is 62 times more effective than any PR, ad or web campaign.  A real life example:  If I tell you that Restaurant ABC is amazing, you’re more likely to believe my opinion versus the restaurant’s glittery advertising. 

3.  Add substance to your summary.  I once heard someone refer to the summary section as your personal “pitch” to the world.  Before you write anything, think about what you would want to read as a potential employer.  Make it count, but also make it truthful

4.  Toot your horn.  Be sure to include your specialties in your profile.  Are you an amazing event planner?  Are you a master at media relations?  Now is the time to sell yourself and your abilities. 

 5.  Link to your Twitter account. Some people might disagree with this point, but I believe if you use Twitter to promote professional blogs, news stories, and so on, it’s fine to sync it up with your LinkedIn account.  The general rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t want your grandmother or boss reading what you post on Twitter (or any other social networking tool for that matter), you probably shouldn’t broadcast it to the world. 

Your professional stock can go up with a great LinkedIn profile. Image by Conecte Link via Flickr.

If you haven’t guessed it by now, the first Saturday in May is my favorite day of the year, which is why I keep writing about all things Derby-related.  But there’s another reason—I see many similarities between social media and horse racing.  No, really.  

Let’s talk betting for a second.  If you ever been to the Derby, there’s a good chance you’ve played the ponies.  Some people prefer to go with an interesting name, while others put a great deal of thought into their decision.  I admit—I used to choose a horse purely on name, but have since learned that if you want to make a little money, you need to do some research. (By the way, my pick for the Kentucky Oaks–Amen Hallelujah– didn’t pan out, so no money for me this year.)

Image by kellyfungirl via Flickr

 This brings me to social media.   Many clients know they want to spend some money on their online presence but simply don’t know how to do it most effectively.  One question they often have is “What kind of ROI can I expect from social media?”  Good question. At times, it’s hard to measure.  It’s not quite as cut-and-dry as say, a placement in a magazine or a television segment.

In my opinion, a good product or service is the key to success in public relations.  It sure makes my job a lot easier. And if you’ve got something to talk about, social media can be a great platform.  One of my clients, Louisville Slugger, recently used Facebook to reveal the 2010 version of their best-selling TPX Omaha bat.  Their fans loved this, and one could argue that this tactic was much more effective than a standard press release.  By going directly to Louisville Slugger’s core group of enthusiasts (who are more likely to purchase the new bat) instead of a mass campaign, we reached an important group of consumers.

So by doing your homework, social media doesn’t have to be such a gamble.

Ah, Derby.  Before I moved to Louisville, I had never seen a city so crazy about a single sporting event.  I’m originally from Bloomington, Indiana and sure, we love our basketball, but nothing can compare to the whirlwind that is the Kentucky Derby.  

Without a doubt, social media has altered the way we live our lives, and definitely how we watch sports.  Take figure skating, for example.  As a journalist who covers the sport regularly, I’ve seen firsthand how blogs and sites like Twitter have changed the sport.  During the World Championships in March of last year, I followed several key reporters who were covering the event. Since there wasn’t a major network broadcasting the competition like in years past, I relied on Twitter to get updates and scores.  

Reporters are Tweeting about conditions at the horse track, who’s running well and who’s not, and other important factors to know before placing a bet.  (By the way, Eskendereya is the early favorite to win, in case you were wondering.) I learned about I Want Revenge being scratched just before the start of Derby day on Twitter as well. 

The annual Running of the Roses has gone digital. Image by photog1966 via Flickr.

Image by joeimel via Flickr

   “How can I use Twitter to increase my sales?”

   “What’s the best way to reach out to my customers using Twitter?”

   “What exactly is a Tweet?”

    If you work in client services like I do, you probably get asked these questions on a daily basis.  (And it’s a good thing to be asked these questions.)  Smart entrepreneurs and businesses are taking advantage of Twitter. They see others reaping the benefits of this social marketing tool and want to join in as well. 

    The trend has gotten so popular that Twitter recently posted an online guide about utilizing the site for business purposes.  They link to case studies like CoffeeGroundz and Tasti D-lite to illustrate their points. 

    Twitter is a fantastic way to communicate with your consumers and get to the heart of what they’re saying about your brand. A company that does this well is Whole Foods.  They’ve hired a full-time person to respond to customer inquiries and issues, promote products and pass along news about stores all across the country.  Pretty savvy, if you ask me.

    Here are five quick tips on how businesses can benefit from using Twitter:

    1.  Do a search for your company or industry on Twitter and see what users are saying about your brand.  Is it positive?  If so, retweet it.  If not, reach out to the person and see what you can do to remedy the situation.

    2.  Reach out to media that frequently cover your industry and begin to build relationships with them. Many writers and bloggers have Twitter accounts now, so take full advantage of this opportunity to get to know them.

   3.  Hold Twitter-only contests and giveaways. Hey, we all love free stuff and what better way to attract new consumers than by letting them try out your product or service?

  4.  Ask questions.  By using Twitter as your personal focus group, you can gain a lot of valuable feedback.

  5.  Post photos, news and any other interesting tidbits as a way to give customers an up-close-and-personal glimpse into your company. By providing users with an idea of the culture and inner workings of your business, you can start to build up an army of Brand Enthusiasts.

Let’s get a little zen for a minute, shall we?  Sometimes, our approach to web marketing reminds me of something Bruce Lee once said:

“It’s like a finger pointing to the moon.  **THWACK!!** Don’t concentrate on the finger, or you’ll miss all that heavenly glory.”

We sometimes get focused on the metrics and lose sight of the meaning.  This happens in traditional marketing metrics, and also with web metrics.  The PR person who rattles off pickups, but misses that the outlets weren’t targeted to their audience.  The media buyer who rattles off impressions without realizing their client doesn’t have an awareness problem, they have an adoption problem. This is concentrating on the finger.

On the web, our fallback position is counting pageviews and unique visitors (which replaced “hits” years ago as the go-to web stat.)  But not all pageviews or visitors are created equal.  If you spend all your efforts and energy chasing a bigger gross number of pageviews or uniques, you can sometimes miss  the more profitable fruit of attracting and deeply engaging the best visitors.

Did you know that Time-on-Site is a potential Goal (a trackable conversion) you can set in Google Analytics?  There’s a reason for that.  Please do click the link for Kate Morris’ excellent post on CRO (conversion rate optimization) versus SEO (search engine optimization).  It’s another, deeper example of “seeing the forest for the trees” in web marketing.

So what’s the “heavenly glory” in this little marketing koan?  If pageviews and uniques are the trees, what’s the forest?

Lifetime customer value.  (Warning: the post from Avinash Kaushik at the end of that link may, in fact, melt your brain.  But it’s totally worth it.)  Here’s the bad news:

You’ll notice instantly that almost none of the data above is available in your web analytics tool.

You can’t find lifetime customer value in your analytics.  You can segment your most engaged visitors.  If you sell online, you can look at that segment’s purchase patterns and compare it to your other visitors.  You can use monitoring tools to find data on that engaged audience’s activity around your brand off your website and see the people who are consistently talking up or talking down your company.  Our experience with our clients tells us that your most-engaged audience is almost always your most valuable audience.

Our 5 Cs model for marketing at Doe-Anderson is highly focused on  putting your energy into developing long-term relationships with brand ambassadors.  We’ve do it because it works.  Wonderfully.  But it is a lot of work.  We create curiosity because it leads to connection, which leads to confidence, which leads to conversation, which leads to community.  And community is the holy grail of lifetime customer value.

Put in more specific terms, pageviews and uniques are important when they lead to engagement.  Engagement is important when it leads to not just purchase, or even future purchases, but recommendation and sharing.  At that point, you’ve transcended “acquisition” and created a relationship, not just between the brand and the customer, but between your best customers and each other.   Which brings us back to that holy grail of community.

Relationships are more valuable than acquisitions.  You know this in an unquantifiable way as a human being, where “value” is some inherent, undefined quality.

As it turns out, even when you quantify it and assign it a monetary value, it still holds true.

I Tweet frequently. I regularly contribute my company’s blog. But yet, I sometimes don’t feel like I’m stretching myself enough when it comes to social media. Public relations professionals must learn how to utilize the many channels and resources that are available, myself included.

So I did some research and discovered a great article that appeared on Mashable in late October 2008 titled “Best Social Media Tools for PR Professionals and Journalists.” In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the link:

http://mashable.com/2008/10/30/best-social-media-tools-for-pr-professionals-and-journalists/

The article featured a ton of great sites, but the three that would be most helpful to me were Twellow.com, YourPitchSucks.com and PitchEngine.com.

If you work in PR, you are probably constantly building and updating media lists. While Twellow can’t eliminate the need for media databases like Cision and Vocus, it does provide useful information. Twellow is essentially a directory for Twitter, where you can find people who cover just about any beat or subject imagineable.

Whether we want to admit it or not, all of our pitches could probably use a bit of improvement. Thank goodness for YourPitchSucks. You can submit your pitch to a group of experts, who will provide feedback to you.

I had heard about PitchEngine before, but never actually tried it. The site is billed as the “next generation PR platform.” You can turn your standard media releases into something more web-friendly. PitchEngine also allows you to connect with other PR professionals, agencies, and media.

Working in PR means using every opportunity possible to connect with others, form relationships and learning the most effective ways to communicate.

So give these sites a whirl. Maybe your pitching skills don’t suck, but you’re sure to learn something else that can help you in your career.