The Human Element

As the emergence of the Internet, social media and mobile communication continue to steal attention from standbys like newspapers and magazines, I find more and more that the subsequent fast pace of our lives also begins to edge out basic people skills like having a conversation face-to-face or even picking up the phone. A recent Inc. article listing the Top 30 tips for using social media listed “interact with visitors – really” as their No. 7 tip and when social media is the option of choice, I definitely agree. In just the last week I’ve been faced with a number of situations that drove home the importance of the human element – and I wanted to share them here.

Last week I pitched some client news and spent the end of the week making follow-up calls. I was delighted to connect with a reporter who I hadn’t spoken with since her maternity leave, and we quickly jumped into a conversation about her baby and the fact that I am expecting in May. It was a delightful conversation that naturally flowed into the business at hand (the pitch) and wrapped up with a really nice, “I hope to be in touch again soon!” The human connection made all the difference and will be a strong element next time we speak.

In pitching the same news I was researching a blogger in Louisville, Kentucky who has a “pitch policy” on her blog site. The blogger had a section in the policy titled, “I’m a Person, You’re a Person” and went on to say, “Since I’m a real person and you’re a real person, I’d encourage you to make our interaction a person-to-person conversation instead of an e-mail blast to a marketing list. I like people, I don’t like e-mail marketing blasts.” I loved that! While a phone call or face-to-face meeting wasn’t the right way to kickoff a relationship with this blogger, she made it clear that if you do a little research, know who she is, treat her like a person and reveal your human side – your chances of being heard go way up. Her simple statement made a strong statement.

At GroundFloor Media we’re lucky to have a variety of clients from across verticals. At the end of the day, it’s really the relationships we form with clients – and prospective clients – that keep our interactions strong and drive the success we’re able to create for our clients and their brands. The Wall Street Journal, reporting from the National Retail Federation’s annual convention earlier this month, emphasized in this article that retailers not become so dependent on the Internet, social media or whatever else may develop that they lose touch with consumers. While we maintain friendships with our clients via Facebook, follow one another on Twitter and appreciate the occasional quick connection via text message, we also make it a point to meet face-to-face as often as possible to get to the heart of the relationship – the human element.

So, if you haven’t already done so today, make time this week to grab coffee with someone you haven’t seen face-to-face in awhile, or even pick up the phone to have a real conversation with someone who matters to you. If you’re like me, every day there are subtle reminders that the human element will make a difference!

First Responders: How Businesses Take Smart Action During Times of Crisis

Who hasn’t been impacted by the devastation of the massive earthquake that hit Haiti last week? The outpouring of relief efforts from individuals, communities and organizations has been praiseworthy. We learned many valuable lessons from Katrina, the most important being how to mobilize quickly and respond to a crisis in an appropriate manner. For businesses, there is a fine line between how to activate relief efforts that are not only good for their business, but are also good for the community, and how to not take advantage of a crisis in order to gain publicity. Most importantly, it has to fit the brand and make sense. Take Whole Foods, for example . The natural foods store created a Haitian Fund late last week to collect donations from all 289 stores nationwide. They are encouraging their staff and customers to make donations through the end of this month during checkout that will go directly to several organizations leading relief efforts in Haiti. Whole Foods is also working with vendors to deliver additional food and water to the country. I look forward to seeing their financial results, as I know it will be tremendous.

I’d be remiss to not mention one of my favorite businesses, TOMS Shoes. They kicked off a campaign within hours of the earthquake to donate $5 from every One for One purchase /content.asp?tid=510 to the relief in Haiti through Partners in Health for the first 48 hours after the crisis. And if you are a fan on Facebook, you received this information real time. In addition to their monetary donations for immediate disaster relief, they have more than 30,000 shoes scheduled to be distributed in Haiti in February to help with rebuilding efforts. You can’t get any smarter than TOMS Shoes. I’d love to sit in on one of their brainstorm meetings. Can you imagine the conversation: ”Hey, I know, how about we send 10,000 pairs of shoes to Haiti? No, make that 30,000.” And then not having someone say they couldn’t afford it. They are brilliant and true to their core. No marketing campaign could possibly impact shoe sales and create more loyal customers. In fact, I’m off to order my next pair online now.

Let’s not forget the American Red Cross . The organization pulled in major star power to encourage text-message donations for earthquake relief in Haiti last week. The Red Cross is the biggest relief organization with a system in place to receive such donations, which are sent by cell phone to 90999 and billed at $10 each to the cellphone account. According to a recent NY Times article the total raised, a small portion of which will be shared with other members of the Red Cross federation, puts the organization well ahead of other relief groups in fund-raising for operations in Haiti. As of late Sunday, the organization had collected pledges of $103 million, about $22 million of which came through the text-messaging program. However, lessons are already being learned because apparently the funds are only pledged (and therefore tied up) until people pay their cell phone bills. It will be interesting to see how this emerging form of new media evolves with regard to cause marketing efforts.

These are only a few examples out of many admirable businesses making a difference. Hopefully there will be hundreds more jumping in to help support organizations like the American Red Cross and others who have given their time, money and products to help the people of Haiti not only in the coming weeks but months ahead as they rebuild and rise above this catastrophe. Follow us on Twitter @GroundFloorPR to hear the latest on our clients who are joining the Haiti relief efforts. Challenge: how can your business help?

~ Amy

"Slacktivists": A perspective

For the record, I am a big believer in the power of activism and supporting causes that resonate with your beliefs and values. When friends and colleagues are passionate about the non-profits they support, I am the first to jump on the bandwagon and do what I can to help get the word out, get other volunteers motivated or offer some financial support. I am sure I am not alone in noticing that with the rise of social media, there has also been an influx of passionate ‘friends’ promoting their causes in the virtual world. This influx of doing good has forced me to ask myself if “by doing good, are we also doing well?”

This point was well documented last week. If you are a Facebook user, there is a good chance that last Wednesday you saw a friend posting a color as their status update. This latest craze came after female Facebookers began receiving messages from a very prominent non-profit in their inbox. “We are playing a game for Breast Cancer Awareness,” said one message that hit an inbox in our office. “Write the color of your bra as your status — just the color, nothing else!! Copy this and pass it on to all girls — NO MEN!! This will be fun to see how it spreads.”

Spread is an understatement. While the count keeps ticking, it appears that the Susan G. Komen Foundation, who is synonymous with Breast Cancer, recruited more than 157,000 new Facebook fans as a result of this simple request to post colors on their walls — whether they received the inbox message or not.

But, is the act of simply posting ‘red’ or ‘cream with daisies’ enough to make a difference? Did it really spread the message and help educate women about breast self-exams? Or is it simply a case of slacktivism — feel-good online activism that has less-than-stellar political or social impact?

Before I dive into the pros and cons of this kind of campaign, I think its important to describe where this term actually came from (I had no idea when I set out to write this post). Apparently, back in 1995, Dwight Ozard referred to it in a slightly different way. He used it to describe the activities that had to be done individually (such as recycling, as opposed to participating in a 78,000-person 5k). Most recently, "slacktivist" have been used to describe those that signed petitions, wore wristbands (think LiveStrong), put bumper stickers on their cars, or joined a Cause on Facebook.

The question is… does slacktivism really hurt? You can’t argue with the brand awareness that last week’s example created. Before the launch of this online craze, Komen had a mere 135 fans. These fans are the viral community that Komen is hoping will help spread the word about the vital importance of screenings and early detection, lobby for research and insurance coverage, participate in the infamous Race for the Cure, and donate online to support local breast cancer research.

Some say that virtual communities are simply not enough. They argue that unless these same 157,000 fans pick up the phone and encourage their friends and family members to get that mammogram or perform monthly exams, it doesn’t save lives. It’s simply a slacktivist campaign that has little or no lasting effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction.

The bottom line – in my humble opinion – is that most slacktivists are genuinely well-meaning folks who want to do well by doing good. As long as we all remember that simply clicking a “Become a Fan” link is not enough to truly be a catalyst for change, it never hurts to slack a little while you act.

A New Year and the New Media

As I was reading the first of the always entertaining and informational Denver PR Blog public relations predictions it got me thinking about how much our profession has changed in the past few years and how the media will continue to evolve.

I’ve seen several different numbers regarding the amount of newspapers that closed in 2009, but it’s safe to say the number is well into the hundreds. Magazines had a similar experience, and while broadcast outlets haven’t closed at the same rate, layoffs and consolidation have been well documented.

In the same 365 days, social media, online news outlets, citizen journalists and the like have flourished. And while I consider myself somewhat of a social media junkie, I don’t think traditional journalism is on the brink of extinction. New York Magazine recently conducted an interesting experiment where it uncovered the actual “source” of news stories over the course of a single day. It is by no means scientific, but the results highlighted how often traditional journalists are primarily responsible for creating the news of the day – including the news on social mediums. That said most of us realize that its often easier and many times more entertaining to use social media to find the niche news we’re interested in (@snowdotcom, @aboutflyfishing and @fodorstravel, to name a few for me).

As the U.S. Senate attempts to define “journalist” through the U.S. Media Shield Bill this year, 2010 most likely won’t be the year we discover “what happens” to traditional media or what exactly the future of social media looks like. What I do think will happen is this: The amount of news outlets, formats and niche audiences that exist will continue to evolve and provide a lot of opportunities for effective communicators to share their stories with the masses. As someone who works to tell his clients’ stories to a variety of influential, interested audiences, but still enjoys a cup of coffee and a newspaper every morning, I’m optimistic about 2010.

- Jim