Welcome to PRVisions Cincinnati Chapter Newsletter.

President’s Letter

Is it just me or is this the year of the PR crisis?

Tiger Woods officially started the festivities on Thanksgiving, but his indiscretions have largely played out this year—as well as his declining golf game. Then Toyota grabbed headlines with reports of unwanted vehicle acceleration—an issue that has led to the company making repairs on close to four million cars.

Then in April, the BP oil spill started—and just ended a few weeks ago. The spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest ever in the U.S. and is likely one of the largest oil spills in history, with hundreds of millions of gallons spilled to date.

The result? An ousted CEO and an economic and environmental catastrophe to which no one truly knows the extent.

Now we find out that a website no one has ever heard of, WikiLeak, has uncovered and released 91,000 confidential documents detailing events in the Afghan war between 2004 and December 2009. Incidentally, the documents provide proof that the U.S. military was paying Afghan media outlets to run friendly stories.

So which PR crisis of 2010 is the biggest and has the most significant ramifications? My money is on the oil spill, a crisis that is replete with its own AP editor covering the issue full time. 

But these issues call to mind two important lessons I learned in my career.

First, the difference between image and reputation. Tommy Preston, a PRSA Fellow and former owner of Preston-Osborne, an agency in Lexington, once told me as public relations practitioners, we are in the reputation business. Image is fleeting and lacks substance. These are clearly reputation-impact issues.

The second lesson is a quote from an old issue of Tactics: “When skepticism persists, honesty and openness are powerful persuaders.”

For years, I had this quote pinned to the wall near my monitor. Now I just have a cartoon with a picture of a man mooning a crowd with the caption, “After 35 years in public relations, Don snaps.” (You can draw your own conclusions on what this says about me!)

Regardless of my cube-wall décor, these two lessons have served me well in my career, and I hope they do the same for you.

By the way, if you would like to explore the “year of the PR crisis” more, stay tuned for information about our Media Day, slated for Oct. 5.  We’ll discuss some very recent crisis situations.

Chris Kemper, APR

Cincinnati PRSA President

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Mark Your Calendar – August 10

So you have a good hit.  What's next?

Capitalizing on media relations success .

Want to generate business from your boss’ appearance crying on national TV? Learn how Roto-Rooter achieved publicity on a national scale through the hit TV show Undercover Boss and how they further leveraged the opportunity through social media and traditional media relations.

Join public relations manager Paul Abrams as he speaks about the challenges he faced and how he turned one media hit into the most successful campaign in Roto-Rooter history.  

Paul Abrams is the public relations manager at Roto-Rooter Group, the largest provider of plumbing repair and drain cleaning services in the U.S. and Canada. Paul is based at the company’s corporate headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. 

A former television news reporter, Paul oversees Roto-Rooter’s North American media relations efforts, including social networking and blogging.

Paul is currently heading Roto-Rooter’s soon to be introduced green program, which will offer effective green products and services that will allow customers to conserve water and energy while saving money on utility bills.

Paul also is the company’s liaison to TV’s Ghost Hunters, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, who are real life Roto-Rooter service technicians as well as reality TV personalities on the Sy Fy Channel.

SPONSORED BY:

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Mark Your Calendar - September 7

Back To School Time –Re-engage with a Fun and Invigorating lunch discussion!

A Business Case: Improving your bottom line by

communicating more effectively with Diverse audiences

and the impact of Social Media.

So, Why is Diversity Important?

Some might answer… “It’s about social justice”… “It’s about personality, thought, and culture”…”It’s about access and representation.”  While all of these responses are true, maybe the most compelling response these days is … “It’s about the bottom line!”  

Join us for an informative discussion and luncheon on the business case for Diversity.  Tuesday September 7th at the Phoenix.  Registration begins at 11:30. The program goes from 12pm until 1pm.   

What you will learn:

• Why a savvy marketer and public relations professional cannot afford to overlook Diverse audiences. 
• How social media is revolutionizing access to diverse audiences and strengthening buying power.
• Getting beyond personal bias and stereotypes to relevant messaging and distribution.
• How to find new markets and customers for your products and services
• How promoting Diversity can be fun and can refresh a stale marketing plan
• And why Diversity should be a part of your strategic plan

You will hear from successful marketing and public relations leaders who have proven that serving diverse markets adds to the bottom line while providing the transformational social benefits associated with Inclusion. Panelists include: Michael Beck, founder of Midwest Latino and board member of Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA; Crystal Kendrick, president of The Voice of Your Customer and 2009 NMSDC National Minority Supplier of the Year and Athena Award Recipient; Chris Seelbach, CFO/VP The Seidewitz Group Marketing Strategist and Activist.

We are pleased to offer this program at the regular price of $23 for members and $35 for non-members.  Don’t miss out on this wonderful discussion. Reserve your spot Today!

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Read All About It!  2010 Media Day (Early bird signups will open August 16!)

Tuesday, Oct. 5,

10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Drees Pavilion, Devou Park, Covington

2010 Media Day Spotlight: Crisis Communications Panel

You ask and you shall receive. Last year you told us you wanted an in-depth look at a crisis case study. Well, this year we plan to deliver!

We are pleased to announce that the Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing’s communications team will host the Crisis Communications panel and share their experiences and lessons learned from Toyota’s recent PR crisis.  Barbara McDaniel and Mike Goss will discuss first-hand the ongoing crisis communications and government relations plan implemented to handle Toyota’s largest recall.  This is an event you don’t want to miss!

SAVE THE DATE: Mark your calendars for 2010 Media Day. This year it’s a full day and gives you the chance to meet with and learn from some of the industry’s most sought-after members of the media.

The program this year includes more interaction with the media; more crisis communications guidance; and other tools to help you in your job and best leverage the power of PR.

The agenda includes:

• How to establish your brand in the social space;
• How best to deal with a crisis, presented by Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing’s communications team;
• How national and local media outlets are reinventing themselves and what that means for you;
• How to navigate the ins and outs of the top social media tools.

Don’t forget about the local speed-networking session! We are taking the idea of local media roundtables to a new level. This year, expect to sit comfortably in your seat while local media members make their rounds in true speed-networking fashion. Instead of meeting two or three media representatives, you’ll have the chance to meet all of them.

Special Guest:

Make sure you stick around for the Happy Hour because we will have a special guest appearance by Cooking with Caitlin, a web-based business focused on food and its connective nature.  Cooking with Caitlin leverages multiple areas of social media to deliver surprising twists on everyday food. If you haven’t tasted one of Caitlin’s yummy creations, Media Day 2010 is your chance. Cooking with Caitlin will be hosting a live cooking demonstration and sampling some of Caitlin’s most sought after recipes. Plus you’ll get a chance to hear about how social media has earned them countless awards, recognitions and media appearances.    

Tickets: 2010 Media Day early bird signups will open on August 16.

• Early Bird: Aug 16 (noon) – Aug 31 (5 p.m.) - $125 (members) $155 (non-members)
• Regular: Sept 1 (noon) – Sept 17 (5 p.m.) - $155 (members) $185 (non-members)
• Students: Aug 16 (noon) – Sept 17 (5 p.m.) - $125
• Lunch Only: Aug 16 (noon) – Sept 17 (5 p.m.) - $35 (members) $55 (non-members)

Sponsors:

A special thank you to our Presenting Sponsor, Empower MediaMarketing.

We’d also like to thank Northlich, The Eisen Agency, CincyTech, Wordsworth Communications and Cooking with Caitlin for sponsoring Media Day 2010.

If you’d like to serve as a 2010 Media Day sponsor, please contact Lauren Doyle at ldoyle@wordsworthweb.com. We have a variety of sponsorship packages still available.

Ashley Walters

Media Day Chair

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Blacksmith Awards Lunch & Learn: Noon, Aug. 17

To help all members and non-members prepare their Blacksmith entries, a Lunch & Learn is being offered by past winners and the awards committee on August 17, noon to 1 p.m., at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber offices in Carew Tower, 441 Vine Street, downtown.

Cincinnati PRSA President Chris Kemper and Pam Gilchrist, both previous winners, will share insights into preparing winning entries. Awards Co-Chair Gail Myers will also review the benefits of applying for awards as well as the contest guidelines.

The program is free for all members and non-members, but space is limited. All attendees are invited to bring a brown bag lunch. To make your reservation for this useful program, visit cincinnatiprsa.org.

For more information, contact Jackie Reau, Game Day Communications, jreau@gamedaypr.com, or Gail Myers, Gail Myers Public Relations, gail@gailmyerspr.com.

Remember: The Blacksmith Awards are scheduled for Nov. 17 at McCormick & Schmick's, downtown.

Jackie Reau & Gail Myers

Blacksmith Co-Chairs

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Digital Marketers Unite! Third Annual Digital Non-Conference

Unite with the biggest, brightest and best names in all things digital for the third annual Digital Non-Conference, slated for September 23-24.  Interact and engage with local, regional and national movers and shakers.  Learn, discuss, network and share ideas on the future of advertising, design, marketing, communications and public relations.

Join us for general and break-out sessions, hosted at nearby pubs, for action-packed learning and fun.  Speakers include: Tim Westergen, founder and chief strategic officer, PANDORA; Jerry Kathman, president of LPK; Drew Buckley, COO of Electus; and Greg Coleman, president and chief revenue officer, The Huffington Post. PRSA members are eligible for the member super-saver rate until Sept. 8 - Register soon!

If you or your company is interested in supporting the Non-Conference - Sign up to sponsor today!

Learn more at digitalcincinnati.org!

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Promote Your Company or Client with Yelp

Cincinnati, meet Yelp! For those with only a vague knowledge of the website, Yelp connects people to great local businesses. It’s where the smart and fabulous go to read and write reviews about their favorite local businesses and happenings. In the past month alone, Yelp has had 31+ million unique visitors and now stands at 8+ million unique reviews. The site recently hired its first Cincinnati Community Manager, Alex Shebar, who will help to promote businesses, festivals, events, occurrences and anything else to urban adventurers in the greater Cincinnati area. Alex would love to get onto all of your media or event listservs and help promote anything new or upcoming that you have going on. You can contact him at Alexs@Yelp.com.

Also: Your company or client’s industry is more than likely represented on Yelp.  Current reviews on the site include the following categories: restaurants, shopping, beauty & fitness, arts-entertainment & events, home & local services, nightlife, health, travel & hotel, auto and more.

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Featured Follower

Name: Andrew Shipp

Position: Business Development Manager

Company: Busam Automotive (Nissan, Subaru, and Suzuki)

Twitter handle: @Andrew_ShipPR

What social media outlets do you use? Twitter, Faceook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Youtube and Blogging

How long have you been a Cincinnati PRSA member? Since June '10

What do you find the most beneficial about Cincinnati PRSA? As a young professional, joining PRSA allows me to learn from seasoned professionals. As important as learning PR-specific tools is, I also find it extremely beneficial to learn how high-level professionals handle themselves. PR is a collaborative process, and PRSA helps build strong relationships with professional public relations communicators.

Whom do you suggest your fellow chapter members follow on Twitter and why? I suggest everyone follow Sarah Evans (@prsarahevans). Sarah is the creator and moderator of #journchat. #Journchat is a weekly Twitter chat (every Monday from 8-11 EST) where journalists, bloggers and public relations professionals discuss industry trends. #Journchat usually averages more than 200 participants from all over the world, and between 1,200-1,500 tweets. There are usually ten questions in a fast paced three hours of learning and online networking.

You're in PR which means you're interesting by default!  Tell us one fun fact about you: I met Bill Paxton at CVG in the PGA Tour Store and we talked golf for about ten minutes. Don't worry though, I made sure to keep my guard up for tornadoes!

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New Member Welcome

Brad Okel

Company: The Eisen Agency

Position: Director of Business Development

College: University of Cincinnati

“I am a recent University of Cincinnati grad, GO Bearcats!  I am a Cincinnati native whose goal is to play every single local golf course before my 70th birthday, anyone willing to tag along?  I feel extremely blessed to be immersed in the culture of such a growing firm and learning something new every day.  I look forward to meeting and getting to know all of my fellow PRSA members in the months and years to come.”

Laura Day

Company: The Eisen Agency

Position: Small Business / Projects (account coordination, media relations and publicity)

College: Miami University

“I am a Cincinnati native (East Side) and now live in the Mount Adams area.  I enjoy trying the newest and local restaurants here, so if you know of any I should try, please send them my way! I look forward to attending PRSA events now that I am officially a member and networking with other professionals in the field.”

Elliot Grossman

Title: President and Owner

Company: Ashire Communications, a PR firm focusing on writing, media relations and PR strategy for nonprofits, colleges and businesses.

Biggest successes in the last 12 months: Generating more than 160 applications for new businesses and nonprofits in the Xavier Launch-a-Business Competition, which could lead to thousands of new jobs in Greater Cincinnati; Generating international media coverage by ABC News, The AP and other media about an unprecedented trip to Jerusalem by a Mason retirement community.

Prior experience: More than 25 years as a newspaper reporter and editor, including at The Cincinnati Enquirer.

Passions: Skiing, Penn State football and my two-year-old daughter, Dani, who was born in China.

Website: www.ashire.net

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July Luncheon Highlights – Video & Photos

Chris Hassall - Global External Relations Officer of Procter & Gamble and PRWeek’s Who to Watch Editor’s Choice in 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/user/CincinnatiPRSA

Video brought to you by:

Check out Life’s Eyes Media at www.lifeseyesmedia.com.

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New Pros Host Workshop on How to Find a Job and Get a Promotion

The New Professionals have been very busy this summer and on Tuesday, July 27, held a "Job Searching, Resume Writing and How to Get a Promotion Workshop." This was a great opportunity for attendees to get tips on how to land a job and make a great impression that could position them for a promotion. We had three awesome presenters, Rodger Roeser, president and founder of The Eisen Agency, Stacy Newland a recruiter at Bride Worldwide and Jerry Teuschler, an independent business contractor, who all shared great insight on how to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Look out for more info about our next event which will be a tour and speaker from the Cincinnati Reds and attendees can even catch the Reds Vs. Cubs game afterwards on August 27th.

Don't miss out on any of the action and send your email address to CincyNewPros@yahoo.com to ensure you are informed about all of our upcoming events!

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Volunteer Bank

Social Media Help Sought by Executive Service Corps

Executive Service Corps of Cincinnati (ESCC) seeks help building a social media presence and using it to improve its communications with internal and external publics.

ESCC is a nonprofit consulting firm that assists other nonprofits in Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky with capacity building services (i.e. strategic planning, board development, financial management). Its greatest asset is the talent base of 140 volunteer consultants who are retired and working business professionals with wide ranging industry experience and skill sets.

The time commitment could involve two to four hours to get up-to-speed on the organization and perhaps another four hours to design the platforms. Executive Director Darlyne Koretos would also ask for about two hours to be trained on the new platforms.

Connect with Darlyne Koretos on Linkedin to learn more about this volunteer opportunity. ESCC has a website at www.esc-cincinnati.org and is located in Blue Ash. However, Darlyne is happy to meet with you anywhere.

Peter Osborne, APR

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Member Herbert Brown Honored

One of PRSA's own, Herbert Brown, retired VP at Western Southern who was the 2004 National PRSA recipient of the Paul M. Lund Public Service Award, is being honored by the Cincinnati United Way with the Herbert R. Brown Society (HRBS).  The Society provides a unique and powerful way for African Americans to contribute to and make a difference in Greater Cincinnati.

United Way of Greater Cincinnati launched its African American Leadership Initiative in 2001.  The initiative recognizes and highlights the key role African Americans play in improving the quality of life in our community and raises awareness of the resources that African Americans bring to the important work of making meaningful change for families and individuals. 

Laura Carr

Immediate Past President

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PRSA National News (from www.prsa.org)

PRSA offers a host of opportunities to grow as a professional.  Visit http://www.prsa.org/calendar to access a calendar of upcoming events.

Most Americans lost when it comes to Foursquare, study reveals

Analysts at Forrester Research say that marketers shouldn’t check in to Foursquare as a promotion tool — yet. They found that location-based social media platforms, while hyped and talked about among online circles, are still too small to be beneficial for major marketing pushes.

According to Forrester Research, only 4 percent of U.S. consumers indicated that they used geolocation services, but of that, just half said that they use them “rarely if ever.” A sizeable 84 percent of those surveyed said they aren’t even familiar with location-based social networks at all.

Forrester analyst Melissa Parrish told Ad Age that she believes services such as Foursquare (2 million users), Loopt (4 million) and MyTown (2.5 million) are only viable for bold brands that target the male adult demographic.

Marketers should hang back until these apps get bigger audiences, she said.

The findings come at a time when Foursquare is reportedly in talks with giants like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft to add its location-based “check-ins” to search results, a move that positions the service as a major player in the social media sphere.

Ever since Twitter (with its 125-million-strong user base) secured contracts with search engines last October, analysts have speculated that geolocal results are the next step to revolutionizing the ubiquitous Internet search query.

Until a deal is hammered out and location-based media mature, however, Forrester recommends marketers only include the platform in campaigns that target video-gaming, sports-playing or gadget-loving adult males. — Philip Volmar

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Past PRVisions Issues

July 2010

June 2010

May 2010

April 2010

March 2010

February 2010

January 2010

December 2009

November 2009

October 2009

September 2009

August 2009

July 2009

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