A Passionate Pursuit of All Things PR
public relations specialist, Amanda Laborio.
After interning with a campus office, I couldn’t agree more with the points made in this post.
Last week, I ended my time (at least for the summer) as a marketing and social media assistant with FIU’s Division of External Relations. Under the guidance of my supervisor, the fabulous Betsy Soler (@bsoler) and her boss, Eduardo Merille (@emerille), I learned much about how to represent…
Writing is the backbone of our industry. We are often called on to write different types of material throughout the day: media release, backgrounder, report, news article, letter to the editor, blog post, email, etc, etc, etc.
This is a skill that you never stop learning, which needs to be…
From a situation I witnessed firsthand this morning, I just have a little something to say about customer relations.
If you are approached by an unhappy customer looking for answers to a problem they are having with your company, don’t give them an answer UNLESS you’re sure it’s the truth. It is okay to say, “I will look into the situation and get back to you.”
No one likes being lied to and in these situations the customer will almost always realize when you give them hurried, incorrect information. Even if you think you know the answer but aren’t 100% positive, double check before sharing information with the customer.
Honesty is still the best policy, even if honesty requires admitting you just aren’t sure about something.
And for goodness sake, if you say you will get back to a customer, don’t forget to get back to them.
After graduating from the college on Sunday, it is not surprising that I am now faced with a Facebook page full of photos documenting the day. It made me think though, why isn’t Facebook integrated with a photo-printing company, like Shutterfly?
There has to be an easier way to printing photos from the site other than my current downloading of them all to a folder on my computer, so that I can upload them to Rite-Aid’s website. Can someone clue me in?
On a similar note, when I was printing photos from a Kodak kiosk earlier this week I noticed that you can log on to your FB from the kiosk and select which images to print. Perhaps this is the easiest way for now, but wouldn’t it be nice if this could also be accompanied with Shutterfly’s delivery to your front door?
The question above is the title of an Inc. article describing the real life situation that brought this debate to the public’s attention. Kristopher Brooks, an NYU graduate, excitedly blogged about his job offer from the News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware only to have the News Journal respond by revoking his offer. Inc. writer Jessica Stillman asks, “Do you think the News Journal was right that this was a firing offense?”
My answer is simple: no. He may have lived decades ago, but companies should still be following the lead of Arthur Page. His sixth principle, “Realize a company’s true character is expressed by its people,” is more important than ever with the rise of social media giving greater amplification to employees’ messages. Brooks blog post was describing how excited he was to be working for the New Journal and this positive publicity is worth a reward, not unemployment.
Some companies attempt to ban their employees from mentioning anything about the company or their work on their personal social media accounts. This stifling of communication is only hurting those companies. If your employees love you, let them share and attract more talent for your next open position. If your employees hate you, their rants can be a good jumping off point for improving the way you are working. Just listening (and actually hearing) the complaints can go a long way to show all of your employees you care about their well being and the role they play in the bigger picture.
Stillman also hits on the generational gap affecting the corporate view on employees going social, saying that older generations may be more likely to side with the News Journal on this one.
“To younger ears that may sound weird and dictatorial, but it’s perfectly natural to older corporate citizens who take for granted a greater degree of suppression of employees’ personality and autonomy in the workplace. What veterans perceive as order and loyalty, newcomers to the world of work may see as engagement and creativity-crushing control-freakishness.”
Maybe it’s just my youth talking, but considering our generation has grown up with social media, maybe the “veterans” should take our lead on this issue. That being said, I’d also venture to say there are a large amount of progressive “veterans” who would agree with the “younger ears” and argue that censoring your employees will ultimately lead to more trouble in the future.
Click here to read the full Inc. article by Jessica Stillman.
Western Kentucky University has been making the news for its approach to the social media usage of its students. Also commenting in the article linked above is Jay Blanton of the University of Kentucky. Do you think universities should be trying to control the posts on the Facebook and Twitter accounts of their students?
Personally, I think they’re fighting a losing battle. Maybe universities should create more opportunities for dialogue between their students and the administration. For example, UK recently hosted a forum for students to ask questions of President Capiluto. Events such as that one seem much more effective at building a campus community and creating a conversation to improve the institution.
