I have to tip my hat to Edelman and the firm’s annual “Trust Barometer.” For 11 years, it’s been a foundational piece of thought leadership for the PR profession (frankly, I wish I had thought of it) and they do such a nice job with communicating the results, both positive and negative.
Yesterday, a wise (not old, but wise) woman said to me, “People don’t care how much you know, they want to know how much you care.”
As your career develops, one of the steepest hurdles to jump is from being a doer to being a manager. The best managers still “do” – especially in creative and professional fields – but learning how to get people to be their best is a stretch for most of us.
Just like the adage, “you will have only four great teachers in your life,” you may have only a handful of great clients. But these are the clients for whom you would walk over hot coals. What makes them great?
I would love to say that there are no weak clients. Just like I would love to say there are no weak employees. But every once in awhile (and for us, luckily, it HAS been awhile) you come across a client contact who just creates, well, ummm, problems.
I had both the honor and the ignominy to have been at the Meadowlands for the Giants/Eagles game this past Sunday, the most important game of the season. We had purchased tickets for my 9 year old son to attend his first pro football game, and he was very excited. As was I.
Do you work with financial institutions? Ever had someone ask you about social media regulations and stuttered your response? Ever felt like, well, you aren’t exactly sure what they are or how they apply? Were you that kid who wrote the test answers on your arm with a Bic pen?
Overheard: PR Power brokers share thoughts on PR today and the future
Last month CEOs of some of the best and most respected firms in the profession assembled for the Board of Directors meeting of the Council of PR firms. Toward the end of the meeting, we got to the best part – a “round robin” discussion of what’s on people’s minds. The group at this table is so impressive – apart from their tremendous individual success as business people and communicators, you can see a lot of wisdom, natural talent and just a heck of a lot of personality.
Social media creates dialogue, and peer to peer interactions. In financial services in particular, there’s an opportunity to inspire a more emotional, more intimate and honest relationship through social channels than with ‘push communications.’ Banks and brokerages have not moved ahead as forcefully as other brand marketers with innovative, big idea campaigns that get their customers thinking about how much they LIKE their brand, how much they IDENTIFY with the product or service provider.
Yesterday, the Council of PR Firms hosted a fantastic session titled “Optimizing Social Media Efforts in Highly Regulated Industries.” If you want all the “lessons learned” from yesterday’s session, skip down a paragraph. But before I start, I want to editorialize a bit. I went to the session full of excitement of what I would learn, and of course I was not at all disappointed.
