Working with Strutta, an interactive promotions company offering an intuitive contest builder that enables businesses to manage fully branded online contests, we are calling for all applicants to get creative, think big and use social media to land a sweet summer job. If you think you have what it takes to work in the big city, then submit a video or photo to the New York Intern Project site, explaining why you would make a great intern. Contestants will then fill out an online questionnaire form that details why they would be an ideal addition to Affect’s team. The winning intern will receive $5,000 and a housing stipend of up to $5,000 to live in New York City for the summer. Rent’s high here, but you can find a nice place with that dough!

Of course, this is a contest, so there’s a catch. Once you enter, your entry goes to an open voting system developed by Strutta. You’ll have to find votes, because the top six vote-getters will move onto the next round. This means use your family, friends, Facebook, Twitter and every other form of social media you can think of to convince people that you’re the ideal candidate for Affect.

Once in the final six, our judges will narrow the field down to three. But these aren’t your everyday judges. Nope, they’re acclaimed tweeter, author and founder of Garage Technology Ventures and Alltop, Guy Kawasaki, and Mashable assistant editor Erica Swallow. Plus, Affect’s founder and President Sandra Fathi and vice president and partner for the agency Leslie Campisi will also weigh in.

The judges will want to see your smarts, creativity and overall personality. For more information, check out what the judges will be looking for here.

After the panel narrows the contestants down to three, the lucky finalists will be flown to NYC for an in-person interview. The winner of the contest will be chosen shortly afterwards. But if you win, don’t expect to be doing office supply work. You’ll be thrust into our day-to-day, drafting press releases, writing blog posts, attending PR, marketing and social media industry events, and sitting in on calls and agency meetings.

So hurry and get your entries in because the earlier you start the more time you will have to grab votes. All entries must be submitted by April 8, 2011.

Once you’ve entered, let us know on Twitter that you want to be the next New York intern with the hashtag #nyintern. Also, you can tell potential voters and rally more votes by submitting your video on our Facebook page.

So get your cameras rolling, and start drumming up support. We can’t wait to see your video!

Good luck!

Johnson King kicked off Social Media Week in London today, attending a session on how to protect reputation in a digital world.  Though much of what the session addressed ground we cover frequently, I was pleasantly surprised at some of what was discussed.  Tim Luckett, who heads up Hill & Knowlton’s Issues and Crisis team, talked at length about why digital media matters and what can happen to companies if not taken seriously.

It’s no secret that the digital world can affect all brands, and this is of course magnified when companies aren’t careful and properly prepared to address these channels – particularly when staring down the barrel of a PR crisis.

The ‘olden days’ saw most of us PRs heading off crises by issuing press releases, calling news desks, and holding press conferences.  That has all changed though as social media has come onto the scene – the speed, transparency and public nature of, as well as access to these channels has fundamentally changed the way in which we respond to news.  Put quite simply, news spreads like wildfire on digital channels and you only have to look to high profile disasters such as the BP Gulf oil spill, which topped the twitter trends list in 2010, to see how damaging social media can be if not properly managed.

What’s more, much of today’s major news is now breaking on social media channels first, and at breakneck speed – take the US Airways Hudson River plane crash for starters, which saw Twitter break the news first.  The speed at which this news not only breaks, but also escalates within a manner of seconds can make it extremely hard, if not impossible, for companies with no fluid social media strategy in place to keep pace.

To make matters more complicated, the nature of crises has also changed over the past few years, with digital media often helping to create these situations.  Candace Kuss, planning & interactive strategy at Hill & Knowlton, had most of the audience laughing, showcasing one spoof and ‘hacktivist’ prank after another.  My favourite, which most of us know and love, is hands down the @BPGlobalPR twitter feed started by activists protesting BP after the massive oil spill on the Gulf of Mexico.  But, I hadn’t heard about the Chevy Tahoe ‘make your own ad’ campaign and how terrifyingly wrong it went for Chevy in the end, after it invited visitors to create their own commercials on YouTube.  What these show is how amazingly real, and scary at the same time, these spoofs can appear.

So, what can we do to mitigate these situations?  First things first, develop a digital media strategy if you haven’t already.  Luckett pointed out that this should be integrated with traditional media channels and we couldn’t agree more – dust off the shelves and look to those ‘old school’ tools like press releases to help support the campaign, and you’ll find it’s not only easier but much more successful.  And remember, the cornerstone of any digital media campaign is knowing your audience and listening, learning, and engaging frequently with them – and when you do, always be human and transparent.

As many of you know, it’s Social Media Week. (That deserves a ‘Yay!’) But the growth of social media is too large to handle in one city, so all across the world conferences and presenters will discuss the ever-growing presence and trends of the social Web. We also want to learn more about what’s going on across the sea, and, really, what’s more social than a blog swap?

For the second consecutive year, we will work with our partner, Johnson King – a European technology PR agency headquartered in London – to discuss the major Social Media Week events in London and New York City. Enjoy, and check back for regular installments from our friends in London. And you can see our thoughts on the New York City events at the Johnson King blog.

Social Media Week 2011: Affect Strategies’ Regina Nisita talks about how social media has impacted the gaming world.

The start of Social Media Week 2011 in New York City yesterday included a panel on how social dynamics are changing the gaming industry.  Social gamers are considered a new breed of gamer, which marketers are very interested in attracting but few have succeeded.  Although many in the gaming industry suggest marketers proceed with caution, many agree that social gaming is changing not only the gaming industry, but advertising strategy as well.  Read more about this panel discussion on the Johnson King blog.

Earlier this week, we made an exciting announcement about our partnership with video New York-based production company Landline TV!

Landline specializes in viral comedy and in recent years has quickly become a top source for humor on the web. The company has released hundreds of shorts both independently and for partners such as College Humor, AOL and MSN.

We have had the pleasure of working with Landline on several viral video campaigns, including an award-winning series for Regus, Absolute Software and Kony Solutions.

We’re thrilled to officially welcome our friends at Landline to the Affect Strategies family!

The show (still unnamed) will be based on the life of real-world crisis PR expert, Judy Smith. If her name doesn’t ring a bell, her involvement and counsel in some of the most high-profile scandals, investigations and legal cases in recent years might. She’s worked on the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton scandal, the Michael Vick case and Chandra Levy investigation, just to name a few.

While the potential storylines are reason enough to tune in, what interests me the most about the show’s premise is that it exposes another side to PR, one that is not often glamorized in Hollywood—crisis communications. We’ve seen shows like Power Girls, The Spin Crowd and Kel on Earth depict the craziness that most certainly ensues in the fashion and celebrity PR worlds. And while those shows touch on many things that we PR people, regardless of industry, face on a daily basis (and serves as good entertainment!), a PR drama is a welcome change of pace. Crisis PR is serious business, involving intense planning and strategy, and I’m looking forward to seeing it pan out in primetime.

It will be interesting to see how much of the storyline will focus on the PR side of the coin, versus the character/relationship side, and which “realistic” elements come into the fold. Either way, Rhimes knows how to tell a great story, and you can bet that I’ll be tuning in. Will you?

Here at Affect, we are constantly looking for ways in which we can better connect with journalists through social media in order to build/maintain relationships and secure meaningful coverage for our clients. While it certainly requires a bit of research and strategy, we’ve had success in proving that social media is an important component of any PR professional’s media relations toolkit.

On Wednesday, November 17, our own Sandra Fathi will be presenting a webinar for Bulldog Reporter’s PR University titled “Using Social Media to Pitch the Press: An Insider’s Guide to Generating Story Placements and Online Buzz”. This 90-minute webinar will include up-to-date examples and case studies of social media pitching successes and offer tools and tips on how to take your social media PR plan to the next level.

To sign up for the webinar, please visit: http://bit.ly/cZ5w2S (Use our discount code pitchpress and receive 25% off the registration price!)

But with that, what we can sometimes lose sight of is how our work impacts other groups on the client side – the product development, finance and HR teams, for example. While we typically don’t get to interface with these departments as much as we’d like, we all share the common bond of wanting the company to be successful.

I recently had a conversation with someone about the best way to give a company-wide update on recent PR activities and successes. The challenge was this: while those directly involved in PR would be aware of what had taken place, other departments might not understand why certain activities were important, or how PR benefits their focus areas. This gets back to the point of how we, as a PR agency, can continuously demonstrate value to our clients. Here are just a few things that we agreed were important to call out:

• Explain or remind employees of the PR goals – Is it support for a product launch? To get much needed visibility in a new market segment? To help rework corporate messaging? Knowing why a PR agency or particular PR campaign was put in place will paint a clearer picture of expectations and deliverables.
• Recap big activities – Did a recent news announcement bring in a high volume of sales leads? Was an executive asked to speak at a prestigious industry event? Did a piece of coverage drive record traffic to the company’s website? Not all PR wins can be clearly demonstrated through coverage alone, so calling attention to the behind-the-scenes efforts helps to reinforce the value a company is seeing from PR and social media programs.
• Solicit feedback and questions – People like to feel that their opinions matter. Offer employees the opportunity to raise questions or concerns with what they are seeing from the PR team or how their departments might be able to benefit from it. You may get new ideas or ways to make the program more efficient.
• Send coverage directly – Even if your company has an up-to-date online press room or coverage page, chances are that not every employee is going there on a regular basis. Make a habit of sharing coverage with employees regularly and encourage them to socialize it via sites like Facebook and Twitter for added company visibility.

Those are just a few tips, but the possibilities are endless. What works for your company or client?

Even if you have no desire to create a profile for yourself or your business, you have to admit that Facebook is a powerful platform.  Sure, it has its functionality problems from time to time and there are also those pesky privacy issues – but when you think about the cultural impact of Facebook, it’s hard not to stand in wonder.  Facebook started as an idea, a simple concept that had no basis in reality.  Mark Zuckerberg had the drive to turn his idea into reality, the passion to see it through and the brains to create something that people would find personally and professionally valuable.  On an almost daily basis I upload personal photos to my Facebook page, talk to family members and friends, run advertising and promote contests for my clients and network with colleagues…all from one profile on one platform.  Facebook is valuable to me.  In fact, I walked out of The Social Network both inspired and reminded that my job as a marketing and social media professional is to create value for my clients through my work every day.

Lately I’m seeing more and more agencies and brands excelling at building and creating while neglecting to add value.  I’m seeing so many conversations that are one-sided and messaging and content that’s sole purpose is to make noise.  At its core, social media is about creation – the creation of content, the creation of conversation and the creation of relationships.  None of those things will sustain without value.  Think about it, if Facebook wasn’t built thoughtfully, didn’t work properly and wasn’t serving a purpose would you be using it today?  I think we all know the answer.

I invite brands engaging on social media to think of themselves as creators.  We have the power to make social media a place where consumers turn to fulfill a need.  To do this, we need to plan before we communicate, think before we create and be passionate when we execute.

Social media ‘creators’ should ask themselves the following questions:

1. What ‘need’ can I fill for users on social media platforms (are you a thought leader? do users need your services? can you help to answer questions or provide new ideas?)
2. Am I providing value to the users that I am engaging with?
3. Is my content thoughtful or is it selfish?
4. Do my online interactions have a value-based purpose?
5. Am I representing my brand in the most authentic possible way?
6. Am I representing my brand in the most creative possible way?

You don’t have to be the next Mark Zuckerberg to create an online community where conversation is king.  It’s challenging to build an online reputation that is based on value, but in the long run it’s more than worth it.

Therefore, we’ve decided to host our first WOMMA Wine Wednesday event on October 27 here at the Affect offices. This event is a free networking opportunity designed to bring together word-of-mouth marketing professionals and the WOMMA member community to discuss ‘Driving Sales through Social Media: The B2B Case Study’.

In addition to the delicious wine and cheese that will be served, the evening will include remarks and insights from industry experts, including Affect’s own Sandra Fathi and Leslie Campisi, on how B2B companies can use social media platforms to support their sales initiatives and increase their bottom line.

We’d love for you to join us for this evening of networking, wine and engaging conversation with other marketing and communications professionals!

Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Time: 6PM – 8PM EST

Location: 60 West 38th Street, New York, NY 10018

Registration: http://wommawinewednesday.eventbrite.com/

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.