1)       Be Team Oriented: Help your client move away from the mentality that his business and your agency are two separate entities and start talking about the relationship as a team. You’re both playing for the same side, and should have the same agreed upon goals.

2)       Pick up the Phone: Make time to speak with your client!  It may sound simple, but when you have a hundred irons in the fire, sometimes this can slip through the cracks. If you don’t regularly touch base – via email, phone or in person – it’s likely you won’t be “in the know”, let alone be able to formulate a unified strategy.

3)       Encourage brainstorming: Two heads are better than one, so organize a collaborative brainstorming session.

4)       Establish Trust: This happens over time, but once it’s built, you’ll be amazed at how much easier your job will become.  Suddenly your client will be telling you about his company’s problems before he tells his own advisors, and your recommendations may be accepted on the first go round. All because you’ve proven your commitment to the client and made him look good in the process!

We’d love to hear from you, so tell us how you developed a successful, collaborative partnership with your client in the comment section below.

When I probed him a bit about this, he explained that these pieces hadn’t really moved the needle on his business. Sometimes as PR professionals, we forget that while the Today Show or Wall Street Journal may  be the “holy grail” of coverage traditionally, these outlets may not be the best way to reach our clients’ target audience. May PR professionals operate in a vacuum, rarely considering the marketing, sales and business goals as part of their PR strategy. PR should be yet another tool for growing a business.

Just a reminder that we can always benefit from revisiting the basics.

Wrong.

Facebook actually has strict guidelines when it comes to hosting contests and promotions, and these guidelines prohibit posting any kind of contest or sweepstakes on Facebook, including collecting entries, judging entries or announcing winners on your wall. Exceptions are made however – if you’re willing to purchase at least $10K in Facebook ad buys over the course of three months.

For many companies, this can be cost prohibitive, but there are several contest platform providers that can serve as a cost-effective alternative. Contest platform providers like Strutta.com, Wildfire and Votigo all offer services that can help you navigate and create a microsite for your contest, with built-in Facebook integration that allows entrants to share their entries with their friends on their own pages or to become a fan and “Like” your company’s Fan Page. Some services even include a contest widget that can be embedded within Facebook’s FBML application with your Fan Page, taking interested visitors directly to the contest microsite. Additional functionality from these types of providers includes the ability to:

• Create a custom, branded microsite
• Design entry or inquiry forms, with custom Q&A requirements from entrants
• Accept photo, video and text entries
• Create photo and video galleries for all entries
• Vote on entries, or to conduct a judging round from within the platform
• Review and analyze contest analytics and top-referring sites

Wondering what one of these sites looks like? Check out the “Show Us Your Office” contest site from our client, Regus. To encourage business growth opportunities for companies nationwide, Regus launched the “Show Us Your Office” contest to award one lucky business owner a year of fully furnished, fully equipped office space at one of Regus’ 400 U.S. locations. Using the Strutta platform, Regus created a microsite, www.showusyouroffice.com, where interested entrants can submit a photo or video of their less than ideal workplace for the chance to win. Site visitors also have the chance to vote on each entry, and the top 10 entries will advance to a final judging round. The best part? Fans have the option to browse the entries right from the Facebook Fan Page via a custom contest widget, giving Regus the chance to further interact with current and potential new Facebook fans.

A well-executed Facebook contest can provide your company with additional sales leads, a plethora of new, engaged fans as well as additional buzz and excitement over your products and services. Have you seen any well executed Facebook contests, or have you used a contest platform provider service? Feel free to let us know in the comment section below.

Steven Slater, being the savvy business man that he is, has hired high-profile publicist Howard Bragman to represent him. Once those pesky criminal charges are dealt with, Howard intends to help extend Slater’s 15 minutes of fame (they’re entertaining reality show offers and potential book deals). Interestingly, while Slater has only had PR representation for less than 24 hours now and his former employer has an entire team working to keep its brand reputation crystal clean, Slater has been coming out on top in the blogosphere and Twitter-world.

Of course, being a working-class hero is great and big businesses have a harder time of looking like the good guys, but the fact that Slater seriously broke the law doesn’t seem to be affecting his public persona one iota…and hiring a top publicist is only going to help turn things in his favor.

JetBlue’s most recent response to the image issue is quite interesting as well. Back by popular demand, they have reintroduced the “all you can jet” promotion after the resounding success of last year’s promotion. However, is this enough to help them regain public favor or will consumers believe the angry spewings of a disgruntled employee? Likely both issues will subside and things will return to status quo in weeks, but it’s an intriguing case study in the powers of spin.

1. Listen, No Really, Listen!

Just like in wedding planning, a potential client meets with several PR agencies in order to select the one best suited to execute their PR or marketing campaign. To win the business, take careful note of your potential client’s business objectives, product timeline, communication style and even their “wish list.” Delivering a proposal that outlines a roadmap to achieve these goals can seal the deal – and lets a client know you “get” them and their business.

2. Pay Attention to the Dollars and Cents

I had my heart set on a particular invitation company at the outset of my planning. After several productive calls where we discussed everything from my wedding colors to my bottom line, I was shocked to receive a proposal that was for almost twice the budget I had shared. I knew immediately that the vendor hadn’t been listening, and I promptly called another company (who came in under budget.) Pay close attention to budget when putting together a proposal for services for any client.

3. Do What You Say You’ll Do

A critical cornerstone to any agency-client relationship, “Do What You Say You’ll Do” also translates to “Don’t Overpromise and Under Deliver.” Many a vendor promised me the world during our initial meetings, and as soon as the ink dried, so too did these opportunities (what do you mean a custom cutout of our names in lights isn’t included anymore!) The lesson here for PR Pros is to be realistic about what you can provide – don’t promise a cover story in a month if you know it could take much longer.

4. Deliver on Time, Every Time

Wedding photographers are notorious for holding your photos captive. Needless to say, I still have yet to receive photos taken over a month ago (even though they were promised in 2-3 weeks.) I immediately soured on my relationship with this vendor, and would be hesitant to recommend him regardless of his great work. As a PR professional, ensuring that you set realistic deadlines that you know you can meet will give your client the confidence that they can rely on you each and every time.

5. The Client Comes First

Now for the positive: my best wedding vendor experiences have been when a vendor has been flexible and willing to go above and beyond to ensure my needs are met. Going the extra mile for a client, instead of refusing tasks outside of the retainer, will build goodwill and can even lead to an expanded retainer in the future.

Overall, it’s important to understand that to a client, your efforts are also contributing to their most important event – business success. Let me know if you have any other lessons to add in the comments below!

This was not my first Comic-Con. I have attended New York Comic-Con for many years but this was my first trip to SDCC. I had heard great things about SDCC, but most of the discussion always focused on the celebrities, sneak peeks at movies, and the exclusive content that was available.  Before the convention started, I was apprehensive.  How is it possible that a convention with that many people could run smoothly?

The staff at the San Diego Convention Center, the volunteers and the local police did an amazing job organizing the nearly 130,000 attendees.  As the days went on, I found myself admiring the staff and volunteers and the way they were able to organize all of the chaos (at times they almost seemed too willing).  Lines with thousands of fans were handled smoothly and efficiently, with volunteers directing people all along the way.  The convention center roped off specific areas in the hallways and even outside around the building to ensure all lines were organized and easy to navigate. Police were stationed at every crosswalk near the convention center to ensure that the mass amounts of people could cross without incident.  Buses, sponsored by Showtime, gave attendees free rides from local hotels and even had Comic-Con representatives at every station at the Convention Center to let people know what time the next bus was expected and answer questions about routes.  Even the nearby restaurants got in the act by customizing menus with superhero themes and offering discounted menus.  Although I am sure that local residents of San Diego were not too happy that we invaded their city for a few days (I even saw a news report that nearly half of the area residents were going to avoid the Convention Center area during Comic-Con), the downtown restaurants, hotels and stores seemed to embrace the mobs of fans that attended the conference.

Overall, I was very impressed with SDCC – both as a comic book geek and as a PR/marketing professional.  Tell us your tradeshow experiences in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you.

Following the popularity of our Social Media Six-Pack earlier this year, the Affect team is excited to officially release the Social Media Successes Series- a compilation of top tip sheets on best practices and effective strategies for businesses engaging in social media. Each of these tip sheets focuses on a different social media platform or topic, offering strategies and tactics to help businesses leverage social media in order to boost their online presence, connect with target markets and ultimately improve their business’ bottom line.

The Social Media Success Series can be downloaded for free as a single unit or as individual tip sheets so feel free to share them with your friends, clients and colleagues. The series currently includes:

• 10 Ways to Enrich Your Company’s Facebook Page
• Tips: Using Twitter for Reputation Management & Crisis Communications
• 7 Simple Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Company’s YouTube Videos
• Tips: Maximizing Your Presence on LinkedIn
• 8 Ways Blog Commenting Can Boost Your Reputation & Web Traffic
• Simple Social Media Measurement Matrix
• 5 Ways Businesses Can Leverage Foursquare in Marketing Efforts

We will continue to add to the series so be sure to check back for some more social media success tips!

A fun time was had by all and I am really looking forward to the next speaking engagement with TEBC.

For those interested in learning more about these awesome kids, check out the TEBC blog at http://teenentrepreneurbootcamp.blogspot.com/

1. Was it successful?
2. What about it made it so?
3. No, was it really successful like did it drive sales?

Too many companies undervalue the follow, like or link. They don’t comprehend that customers are willing to give brands a social commitment – as long as they get something of value in return. The transaction can be based on entertainment, status (VIP), personal service, commercial value (discounts,coupons), intelligence (first to know) or any number of other factors. However, if a company is just promoting it’s products and brand through a hard sell approach, social media will not be a sustainable medium.

Old Spice has invested in earning it’s social media status and engaged with consumers in a creative and entertaining way that will help drive sales and build brand loyalty. Although Old Spice is a consumer brand, the same approach is valid in a business-to-business context. (Example: Late last year we helped create some videos for Regus, a provider of flexible workplace solutions, targeting small business owners in New York City.)

I look forward to seeing what’s next for Old Spice as they push the social media envelope.

While this lapse in judgment can negatively affect your pitching, whatever you do, don’t let it seep into your personal communications. When you find yourself talking in sound bytes to your mom, your dog — or, even worse, a prospective employer — tossing off great theses as though they are capable of standing alone can be a real buzzkill.

Case in point: let’s say I’m interviewing you. (This could happen! Email me!) You say, “Yeah, I don’t read blogs.” Full stop. Now, I’m willing to go there with you. That’s provocative! Why don’t you read blogs? Are you talking about all blogs, or just certain ones? What is it about blogs that perturbs you? Is this a new development in your life? Was there a time where you simply couldn’t get enough blog, and then, one day, shazam, the world of blogs lost its appeal?

You might believe that someone interviewing for a PR position should be immediately disqualified for lack of blogthusiasm. But  I can think of a bazillion ways to follow up this thesis statement with a compelling counterargument. Here’s one: when I can follow all of my favorite bloggers and publications via Twitter, who needs RSS feeds anymore? (Come on, that was easy.)

So, that’s my quick tip for you. Want to be taken more seriously, by me, your client, and journalists everywhere? Feel free to grab my attention with an outrageous thesis statement. But if you don’t follow it up with an actual argument, you’ve lost my interest — and my respect.