Tech Affect » Sandra Fathi

Honors for Affect!

Pat Gotham — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:53:46 +0000

This week our team earned some great honors at the PR News Awards Luncheon held in Washington, D.C. Affect was named a Top Place to Work in PR for 2011, and our very own Sandra Fathi was a finalist for Public Relations Professional of the Year for agencies in the PR People Awards.

PR executives judge the PR News Awards, so we are thrilled to be recognized by our peers as a top place to work in the industry. I enjoy coming into work each and every day because of the team and overall atmosphere at Affect. Being encouraged to get creative, to think up and implement new ideas and being part of a culture that fosters growth and development makes me proud to be a member of the Affect team.

Also, the PR News PR People Awards highlight those who have set the benchmark for public relations and showcase outstanding PR achievements of the last year. Having Sandra named as a finalist for the agency category of PR Professional of the Year is fantastic recognition for the direction of our agency.

Awards like this are always great reminders of just how hard people in the public relations profession work. Congratulations to all the winners!

What President Obama Can Teach Us About PR, Public Speaking & Media Training

Sandra Fathi — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:51:55 +0000

When we sat down to watch President Obama last night in his speech on the American Jobs Act, my husband and I knew that we had different views on his politics, but we both agree that he is an outstanding orator. President Obama is undoubtedly one of the best speakers that has graced the White House in decades. Regardless of your views on the content of his speech, there is no doubt that he captures the attention of his audience, that he is a dynamic and charismatic speaker and that he knows how to master a media opportunity. Earlier this week, I conducted a media training workshop for one of our clients and as part of the program, we watched videos showcasing some of the best and the worst media performances in recent months. So many of the worst examples were made by politicians who let their egos get the best of them, lost their composure and they failed to take advantage of a great media opportunity.

At the conclusion of our media training session, we talk about the “5 Cs” of execution in a media interview or public speaking. Obama mastered the 5 Cs long before last night’s speech but following his lead is an excellent example for any executive in the private or public sector.

The 5 Cs:

Conviction – Deliver your message with conviction and enthusiasm. If you are able to demonstrate your passion for a topic, your excitement on an issue, it can sway an audience and the media.
Conversation – Keep in mind your audience when developing your content – and have a conversation with them on a subject they care about and in a way that they understand. Straight-forward examples and universal terms are better than highly technical explanations that can confuse and alienate your audience.
Composure – Even in a hostile environment (like a room filled with your political opponents or skeptical media) keeping your composure and persevering in your mission is critical. If you lose your cool or go on the defensive, your credibility can be damaged.
Confidence – The best way to come to a media opportunity or speaking engagement full of confidence is to prepare extensively and know your content inside and out. Having a strong grasp of the issues, clearly outlining your message and arming yourself with facts, figures and irrefutable data helps any speaker confidently step into the spotlight.
Color – People may remember facts and figures – but they identify and bond with stories. Whenever you can provide colorful examples that illustrate your message while engendering an intellectual or emotional tie to the audience, you can leave a lasting imprint.

Although it is hard for anyone to match President Obama’s natural talent in this arena, we can all learn from him and improve. Whether we are giving a speech to the entire United States, a group of employees or just one industry reporter, applying these rules can make any opportunity a powerful moment of change in the course of our lives and our business.

Build Your Brand the Social Way

Sandra Fathi — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:50:44 +0000

An article I wrote recently appeared in PRNews on “Building Your Brand the Social Way” outlining some universal truths regarding social media engagement. If your company is blogging, tweeting or friending, you might want to check it out. Highlights include:

Have a voice and stay on message (themes)
Be authentic, honest & ethical
Get ready for a long-term commitment
Provide value, not noise
Aim for quality, not quantity
Share & play nice in the social media sandbox
Bring online relationships offline
Measure, tweak, repeat

To learn more, read the full article here.

Slides from Digital Immersion Workshop 6/25 for PRSA-NY

Sandra Fathi — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:24:09 +0000

If you were in attendance at yesterday’s Digital Immersion Workshop on behalf of PRSA-NY, you’ll find the slides and links here. Hope you found it useful. I look forward to linking, friending and tweeting you Feel free to share your feedback in the comments.

Digital Immersion Workshop for PRSA

View more presentations from Sandra Fathi.

Blog Hosting:
www.wordpress.com

Blog & SM Monitoring:
www.radian6.com
www.yahoopipes.com
www.tns.com
www.dna13.com

Communities:
groups.google.com
groups.yahoo.com
www.ning.com

Photo & Video Sharing:
www.youtube.com
www.vimeo.com
www.schooltube.com
www.flickr.com

General Twitter Resources:
www.twitter.com
http://help.twitter.com
http://mashable.com/category/twitter-lists/
http://twitter.pbworks.com/

Twitter Applications:
www.tweetdeck.com
www.hootsuite.com
www.twitiq.com

Finding Journalists on Twitter:
www.journalisttweets.com
http://prsarahevans.com/mediaontwitter/
www.muckrack.com
www.wefollow.com

Sharing Widgets:
www.addtoany.com
www.tweetmeme.com

Other:
www.compete.com

Twitter 101 Workshop for PR & Marketing – Slides & Links

Sandra Fathi — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:27:03 +0000

Last night I presented a workshop for PRSA NY entitled Twitter 101 for Public Relations & Marketing Professionals. We had a great turnout with 90 attendees and an incredible view thanks to our hosts, Bloomberg. We wanted to share the slides as well as the links to sites that we discussed during our session. Although the presentation is not completely self-explanatory, it will give you a general feel for what we discussed.

Twitter 101 Workshop for Public Relations and Marketing Professionals

View more Microsoft Word documents from Sandra Fathi.

If you’d like to see what folks tweeted about the event, just search for the hashtag #tweetny: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23tweetny

General Twitter Resources:
www.twitter.com
http://help.twitter.com
http://mashable.com/category/twitter-lists/
http://twitter.pbworks.com/

Desktop Application:
www.tweetdeck.com

Web-based Application:
www.hootsuite.com

Mobile Applications:
www.twitterberry.com
www.twitterfon.com

Co-Tweeting
www.hootsuite.com
www.twitiq.com
www.cotweet.com

Images
www.twitpic.com

Case Studies:
http://www.imediaconnection.com/printpage/printpage.aspx?id=23151

Finding Journalists:
www.journalisttweets.com
http://prsarahevans.com/mediaontwitter/
www.muckrack.com
www.wefollow.com

Various Twitterers/Brands:
www.twitter.com/jetblue
www.twitter.com/southwestair
www.twitter.com/skydiver
www.twitter.com/mashable
www.twitter.com/pcmike
www.twitter.com/carontreatment
www.twitter.com/sandrafathi

Other:
www.compete.com
www.yammer.com
www.jaiku.com
www.plurk.com
www.techaffect.com

If you were there, and are now tweeting, leave a comment with your twitter handle! @sandrafathi

PRSA-NY Honors Sandra with Big Apple President’s Award

Leslie Campisi — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:49:36 +0000

Yesterday was a big day down at the Affect Strategies homestead. Our beloved Sandra Fathi was honored by PRSA-NY at the 2009 Big Apple Awards.

Current PRSA-NY President Deborah Radman gave Sandra kudos for working tirelessly to help the chapter embrace technology in the practice of PR.

We had an amazing time at The Rainbow Room (which, sadly, may still be closing) at the top of Rockefeller Center, drinking bellinis and rubbing elbows with the other winners.

We also had our own Affect-style celebration a few hours earlier, featuring cookies and a champagne toast.

If you know Sandra, you know she’s never one to make a big deal about her accomplishments. But please join me in congratulating her on this much-deserved honor!

I’ll link to the official photoset from the event as soon as it’s posted. In the meantime, you can get a taste of the festivities from our Flickr stream.

YAY, SANDRA!

To Tweet is Sweet: Content from Yesterday’s Twitter Immersion Course with PRSA-NY

Sandra Fathi — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:59:05 +0000

Yesterday we had more than 100 people attend a ‘Twitter Immersion Course: From Novice to Expert in a 2-Hour Workshop’ produced by PRSA-NY and hosted by MS&L. I led the first part of the program that was a Twitter 101 tutorial of sorts and was joined by panelists David Binkowski, senior vice president, Word-of-Mouth Marketing at MS&L Digital, and Thomas Barritt, partner and associate director of the Global Food & Nutrition Practice at Ketchum.

We covered Twitter basics from creating a user profile to using hashtags to make tweets searchable to the Twitter community. David provided attendees with case studies on how MS&L has used Twitter to generate buzz for clients, while Thomas explained the unspoken ‘rules’ of engaging in social media. To read the tweets from this event, simply search for the #tweetNY hashtag on Twitter. If you’d like to follow us on Twitter, you can find us here: @sandrafathi, @dbinkowski, and @culinarytypes.

Here is a copy of my presentation. It can be viewed here or downloaded from SlideShare.

Twitter Immersion Workshop: From Novice to Expert (PRSA-NY)

View more presentations from Sandra Fathi. (tags: twitter prsa)

Also, here are some of the links to sites/programs/articles that we referenced during the presentation:

Top Twitter Apps:

Twitter Search – For searching Twitter and monitoring trends

TwitterVision – To view tweets from around the world on a map

TwitPic – To post pictures straight to your Twitter account

Twitdom/TweetRank – To view top ranking folks on Twitter

Who Should I Follow – To help you find suggested folks to follow

What the Trend – Find out what topics are trending high on Twitter right now

TweetDeck – To help organize/prioritize your Twitter usage and monitoring (Desktop application)

Reference Materials:

Twitter FAQs

Top 20 Twitter Tools

Common Craft’s Twitter in Plain English (Video)

Brian Solis: Twitter Tools for the Community

Pistachio Consulting: Twitter for Business

Caroline Middlebrook: The Big Juicy Twitter Guide

5 Top Twitter Presentations

Twitter Text Commands

Hope you find it useful!

UPDATE 2/27: David Binkowsky’s presentation for this event is now available on SlideShare

Maximizing the Value of Your News: From Twitter to Google

Sandra Fathi — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:07:53 +0000

I am working on my presentation for a Vocus webinar later this afternoon, entitled ‘Maximizing the Value of Your News: From Twitter to Google‘ with my co-presenter Jenni Bowring-McDonough from Free Spirit Publishing. As with all presentations of this kind, there is never enough time to review all of the material or share as much information as you would like. So, I thought I’d write a quick blog post and share some of the articles and information that I’ve come across in the last few months that I thought would be beneficial on this topic. (If you’d like to participate in the webinar, it’s free. If the date has passed, it will be archived on the Vocus website for at least 6 months.)

General Information on the Topic:
PR Newswire Toolkit: http://prtoolkit.prnewswire.com
PRWeb Resources: http://www.prweb.com/writing_release.php
Publicity Insider: http://www.publicityinsider.com/release.asp
Online Marketing Blog : http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/02/seo-tips-for-public-relations/
Why Big Brands Struggle with Social Mediafrom Mashable

Twitter Resources:
Make Tweet Love – Top Tips for Building Twitter Relationships from Brian Solis
Twitter Etiquette: Five Dos and Don’ts from CIO Magazine
Getting Things Done on Twitter from Emily Chang
14 Tools for Highly Effective Twitter Users from Kenny Hyder
How to Get Retweeted from Guy Kawasaki

Presentation
The presentation is available online at SlideShare or here:

Maximizing The Value Of Your News: From Twitter to Google

View more presentations from Sandra Fathi. (tags: strategies affect)

UPDATE 2/25: For full webinar replay (slides and audio) click here.

Interview with Doug Simon at the BDI Real-Time Communications Conference

Leslie Campisi — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:09:30 +0000

Doug Simon caught up with Sandra at last week’s Business Development Institute Real-Time Communications Conference. The interview is now posted on the DS Simon Vlog.

Sandra moderated a roundtable conversation on micro-messaging tools Twitter and Yammer. In the interview, she explains the difference between the two technologies and offers tips on how to get your feet wet using them.

Updated 10:58am: Screenshot replaced with embedded video. Enjoy!

Best PR & Marketing Books: Reviews from Real Professionals (The Affect Team)

Sandra Fathi — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:15:42 +0000

Why Is Affect Strategies Doing Book Reviews? The Affect Strategies team has read and reviewed several books as a result of our continued dedication to staying abreast of the changing PR landscape. As practitioners in an industry that is constantly evolving and morphing into different mediums, our team prides itself on staying ahead of the industry and participating in continual learning and discovery. Each book has been reviewed to capture the key points and take aways. They have also been rated using a 5-star system. The reviews are avaiable to view in PowerPoint Form. Each rating is based on the reviewer’s personal view and insight into the work and is a reflection of the written review.

PR Idea Book: 50 Proven Tools that Really Work Written By: Jeff Winke, Reviewed By: Walter, Media Relations Specialist

About Walter: Walter serves as a Media Relations Specialist at Affect Strategies. Prior to his working at Affect Walter held the Media Relations Coordinator position at Multivu, a division of PR Newswire that specializes in broadcast public relations.Prior to MultiVu, Wa lter served as Associate Di recto r of Audio Services for Medialink Worldwide, a global leader in broadcast and broadband marketing.

About the Jeff Winke: Jeff Winke is a PR counselor, magazine editor and adjunct university professor living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Throughout his career Mr. Winke has provided consulting services for clients spanning from the U.S. to Eastern Europe. Besides his highly acclaimed book, PR Idea Book: 50 Proven Tools that Really Work, Jeff is internationally recognized for his award winning book of haiku poems, What’s Not There.

BUZZMARKETING: Get people to talk about your stuff Written By: Mark Hughes, Reviewed By: Sandra, President

About Sandra: Sandra is the President and founder of Affect Strategies. She has more than 15 years of experience in PR and marketing for technology firms. Prior to founding Affect Strategies, Sandra held various positions at RADVISION, Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, Nokia and VCON.

About Mark Hughes: Mark Hughes is best known for, what Time Magazine called “one of the greatest publicity coups” in history, introducing e-Bay to Half.com and selling it for $300 million. His marketing career has included work with top players such as Pizza Hut, eBay and AMSC (XM Satellite Radio). As the son of a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Hughes’ book, BUZZMARKETING: Get people to talk about your stuff, has received praises from such individuals as the former editor of the Wall Street Journal and the former Chief Marketing Officer of Pepsi-Cola.

Marketing to the Social Web Written By: Larry Webber, Reviewed By: Regina, Senior Account Executive

About Regina: Regina is a senior account executive at Affect Strategies. Prior to joining Affect Strategies, Regina served as Director of Marketing and Sales at HopStop.com, a site dedicated to helping people get easy-to-use mass transit directions for major metropolitan areas. Regina also held the role of Marketing Manager at Borders Books and Music.

About Larry Webber: Larry Webber’s passion for combining technology, the internet and communications has set him aside in the industry as an innovator and has lead to his finding two agencies, Thunderhouse and The Weber Group (no owned by The Interpublic Group of Companies). As one of the first interactive marketing agencies, Thunderhouse catered to such prestigious clients as Coca-Cola, Pfizer, IBM and General Mills. Webber went on to find the Weber Group and proceeded to grow the company to be the world’s largest PR firm. After the acquisition by Interpublic, Webber was named chairman and CEO of Interpublics Advanced Marketing Services.

PR on a Budget: 5 Rules of Great PR Written By: Leonard Saffir, Reviewed By: Katie, Marcom Manager

About Katie: Katie holds the position of Marcom Manager at Affect Strategies. Prior to her work at Affect she served as an Assistant Program Manager for the Capital Roundtable, an event production company for the private equity, investment banking, venture capital, legal, hedge fund, and professional advisory communities in New York City. Katie has also worked as an Account Coordinator at KPR and Associates, a pharmaceutical advertising agency in New York City.

About Leonard Saffir: Leonard Saffir has worked in the fields of public relations, marketing and journalism. His public relations background includes a prominent role at Porter Novelli International as executive vice president. Saffir has written three books, one of which has been chosen by the American Marketing Association as a featured selection. This book, Power Public Relations: How to Master the New PR was published by McGraw-Hill and is used as required reading at several colleges and universities.

The New PR: An Insiders Guide to Changing the Face of Public Relations Written By: Phil Hall, Reviewed By: David, Senior Account Executive

About David: David is a Senior Account Executive at Affect Strategies. He previously served as Director of Public Relations at Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy in New York and the College Football Hall of Fame. In addition to his director positions, he has additional public relations experience with the Indianapolis Colts and Purdue University’s football team.

About Phil Hall: Phil Hall is a key figure in the world of communications. As the editor of PR News, Hall is not only regarded as an innovator in the PR world but has also helped many small businesses sustain key media coverage during his tenure as the president of Open City Communications. With over 20 years of experience Hall has earned such prestigious awards as the Silver Anvil Award from the Public Relations Society of America.

The Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business Written By: Jon Steel, Reviewed By: Leslie, Vice President

About Leslie: Leslie is the vice president of Affect Strategies. Leslie began her career in the corporate marketing department of 24/7 Media, a global advertising network and media technology provider (now part of WPP Group). Prior to joining Affect Strategies, Leslie worked as a freelance Interactive Producer, developing online and downloadable games for several Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network properties. She also served as a Content Manager at Bolt, the Web’s first social networking site for teens.

About Jon Steel: As the co-creator of the famous “got milk?” advertising campaign, John Steel is currently helping WPP companies develop client business while also assisting with creative and strategic development. As the winner of several awards including eleven gold Effie awards from the AMA received for Advertising Effectiveness and the David Ogilvy Gold Award, Steel is highly regarded as an astute advertising professional.