So you’ve hired a public relations / P.R. firm, or an search engine optimization / search engine marketing shop, or a graphic design house, or an advertising agency. You’ve committed to investing the monthly retainer. Your job is done, right?

Wrong.

Marketing communications requires agency and client – driver and navigator, if you will – to work together to find their way along a new stretch of road, one where the destination is successful customer communications and outreach.

Effective marketing campaigns require the skills unique to each partner. Only the client knows the day-in, day-out details of the business. Try as they might, marketing executives cannot know this depth of detail. But what the marcom exec can do is solicit those details from the client in a way that can improve the messaging.

Smart clients are marketing savvy. They’re constantly looking for new angles to pursue – either for advertisements or public relations campaigns. And smart executives encourage their team to think like smart marketers. The client comes to the marketing firm and says, “I had a great idea for a news story,” or a blog post, or a Tweet, or a community service campaign, or…

How can you ensure your team thinks like marketers? Try this:

* Simplify input. Set up an email account (marketingideas@[yoururlhere].com). Encourage everyone to submit marketing news regularly.

* Email reminders. Truth is, everybody’s busy – too busy to remember to send ideas to the marketing team. So the marketing team should email everyone across the enterprise reminding them to submit an idea or two as they see them.

* Friday = Idea Day. Designate one day each week to have people brainstorm ideas.

* Reward good stories. If a media outlet runs a story submitted by an employee, reward the employee with a gift card for dinner, a movie, iTunes, etc.

Everybody in an organization must think like a marketer. If they see a statistic in the news, they should think, “How does this apply to me?” If they see a new product about to come out, and they think, “How did we do this?” Is human resources is filling out forms for a new senior-level hire? Maybe the industry trade journals or local business media would be interested to learn more.

Every idea must be vetted first. No employee or exec should submit an idea directly to the media. Information could be confidential or otherwise damaging if released. Instead, designate one employee to handle news approval and distribution.

Journalists and industry bloggers always are looking for unique or compelling stories. So, too, are your marketing vendors. This even works for those companies that don’t have a marketing firm on payroll. In fact, it’s even more important that they think like marketers.

Too often, companies hire marketing communications firms and say, “Marketing now is YOUR job.” It’s not. It’s a team effort. No marketing effort is better than that which has client and vendor partnering.

Julie Silver Talenfeld

Boardroom Communication Inc., founder and CEO, Julie Talenfeld, was profiled in a recent issue of Plantation Forum, part of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel family of newspapers. Read the On The Spot article here.

Known locally as a marketing communications professional who’s also a strong proponent of work-life balance — including in her company’s Plantation, Florida, offices, Talenfeld discusses her family, her summer, and her work in and for the community.

In that place where public relations and search engine marketing converge, practitioners have a long-standing understanding of the process: Infuse every press release, opinion and op-ed, advertisement, passage on the website, and other written text with keywords.

Keywords are the words and short phrases that not only define what your firm or client does, but what prospective clients or customers likely will be using in their searches.

For marketing communications pros from South Florida to New York City, the process is the same. Every document we write or Website we create for our clients is stacked with keywords, including those seen on the screen – and unseen in the back-end where only programmers go.

But has the process changed? A provocative new perspective has emerged from none other than the SEO Team at Google.

Metatags are a waste of time.

For the uninitiated, metatags and keywords are the words pasted into a website’s or blogsite’s unseen scripting. Theoretically, these words are chosen for their likelihood to be favored terms used by the searching public (the process being search engine optimization, where you improve the likelihood that terms on your site will match a person’s search for those terms). Another important application is pay per click. This form of paid marketing serves up your advertisement on Google or another search engine based on the terms people look for.

In each instance, words and phrases in the metatags and keywords should duplicate the words and phrases peppered in copy throughout your website or blogsite.

(A Tip: To see what words your competition uses in its coding, move your mouse over any place on their home page that is neither a graphic nor hypertext. Right-mouse click on that space. In the dialogue box that opens, click “View Page Source.” Then Find the line <meta name = “keywords”/> tag line, and Voila!, you’ll see the terms they deem important to search engine optimization).

Now, the SEO Team at Google tells us that metatags don’t matter that much, and niche phrases are more important than the more commonly used terms. As the programmer said, they matter “basically, not at all.”

There goes a decade’s worth of conventional wisdom right down the drain! SEO experts and marketing communications professionals have told their clients those keywords are essential to ranking.

What’s an SEOer to do?

Listen to Google, and practice some common sense. Still do your SEO analysis to know what your keywords should be. And still use them throughout your editorial copy (this means ANY editorial copy – even that not intended for your own website or blog. After all, most written content ends up online anyway).

Besides, Google could change its mind, policy – and algorithms – at any time. Better to have the words embedded on the site – just in case.

Having the words never hurts, says Rick DeJarnette with the Webmaster Center Team at emerging Google rival search engine, Bing. Sure, it’s not the “panacea it once was back in the prehistoric days of Internet search…But there’s no need to ignore the tag. Take advantage of all legitimate opportunities to score keyword credit, even when the payoff is relatively low. Fill in this tag’s text with relevant keywords and phrases that describe that page’s content.”

Among DeJarnette’s other advice: Separate words (none used more than four times) by commas, max your list to 874 characters, choose “secondary” terms lesser used by the competition, and even drop in a few commonly used typos (some people are lousy at typing or spelling – or both).

The Net-Net: Keywords remain important. Don’t stop using them in your metatags and other areas of the website. The searchosphere is a dynamic, fast-changing place. Who knows, Google might have changed its policy even while you were reading this post…

Kanye West, Joe Wilson and Serena Williams Provide Lessons in Bad P.R. and Crisis Management

Kanye West grabs the microphone from Taylor Swift on the MTV Music Video Awards – and proceeds to ruin her night, and tarnish his own reputation.

Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouts “You Lie” during a speech by President Barack Obama on the floor of the U.S. Capitol – and is chided by fellow Congressmen and admonished by his constituents.

Serena Williams threatens to shove a tennis ball down the throat of a linesman at the U.S. Open – and is left to answer for her actions and try to salvage a blemished reputation.

These represent only the latest public instances of potentially reputation-harming activities on arguably the largest stages of their respective arenas.

Setting aside what got society to the point that such boorish, disrespectful or threatening behavior seemingly is commonplace, what should people do when they’ve erred publicly?

In each instance, West, Wilson and Williams issued very public apologies (in West’s case, boosting ratings of the premier of Jay Leno’s new show).

If an executive finds him or herself having misspoken, lied, threatened or otherwise harmed his or her reputation, swift attempts at recovery are essential.

-  Issue an apology. If a mea culpa is to come eventually, sooner is better than later. Letting it fester only gives pundits, competitors and others time to argue their case.

-  Consider the platform. If you were misquoted in print – or were quoted correctly, but want to clarify your statement, write an opinion piece or a letter to the editor correcting or better stating your position.

-  WWMS. As Jay Leno asked West, “What would your mother say…?” In many instances, the answer to that will guide your path.

-  Use social media. Video your apology and post it to YouTube. Blog your mea culpa. Tweet it and Facebook it.

-  Be sincere. This is not an exercise in savvy marketing. It’s an attempt at crisis management and reputation salvation. Coming across as insincere or less than forthright will only exacerbate the situation.

-  Bring in the pros. Sometimes, crisis recovery requires a professional.

Message and media management may take you into areas unknown. Bring in a public relations or reputation management firm to help polish a tarnished image.

Our advice: Do what Mom and Dad said years ago: “Think twice before you speak once.” And if you speak first, be contrite. Apologize. Promise to never repeat the behavior in the future. Then follow through on that promise.

To be sure, in some instances there’s humor to be had. NFL quarterback Brett Favre currently is starring in television commercials where he cannot make up his mind about a new television – poking fun at his recent indecision regarding retirement. Former tennis champion John McEnroe similarly has been featured in TV ads and movies highlighting his on-court persona outbursts.

Whether it’s talk radio, the blogosphere, or other very public platforms, we’ve become polarized as a nation. Disagreements become public, and tolerance has been cast aside. Some celebrities see such outbursts as a way to boost their stock, espousing the belief that, “There’s no such thing as bad P.R.” Some blame “the times”; kids see such behavior on TV and mimic it in daily life.

We disagree. Bad P.R. requires quick action.

And decorum is timeless.

Hello and welcome to our blog! Perhaps you may have noticed a few of our postings in the past few weeks, or perhaps this is your first time visiting. Either way, we wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves and share with you the purpose of this blog.

Boardroom Communications is a mid-sized public relations agency located in South Florida. We have been in business for more than 20 years, and we feel that we have a thing or two to say about the local business community — public relations, marketing and journalism in particular. We have come across people and organizations of all types — small businesses, large businesses, and non-profits. C-level execs to young professionals.  Journalists, editors, reporters, producers, anchors, freelancers, writers, and even the occasional graphic designer or two.

We are connected. And we want to be the eyes and ears of our community. We want to share our thoughts with you, and we want to hear yours! We are entering the blog-o-sphere because we want to create a dialogue.

What do you think of the new design of the “Sun-Sentinel?” Because I can tell you, we all have plenty to say.

How is the economy affecting your business?

In addition to sharing our thoughts, we also want to share valuable tips and tools with you, to hopefully help improve your business, and your professional and personal lives.

So from time to time, you may see postings about how to utilize community relations, or about our friend Peter Shankman and his new service, Help-A-Reporter-Out. Or, we may simply be sharing our thoughts and viewpoints on things such as the state of the newspaper industry, or what it’s like to be a new grad.

Either way, we hope you will visit our blog often, and we hope you will participate. Add us to your RSS readers, send a link to your friends. Don’t know what an RSS reader is? Don’t worry — we’re here to tell you J

As a new school year begins, I can’t help but reminisce on my college days. Upon graduation I felt confident that I was prepared to enter the working world; armed with my AP stylebook, sample press release format and a couple internships under my belt, I thought I had everything I could need. Most of all, I had my painstakingly crafted portfolio. I was sure that future employers would be impressed with all I had written – countless articles, press releases, backgrounders and reports. I studied crisis communication and proposed mock campaigns for major companies. We discussed ethics, analysis, stewardship and public speaking. However, my feelings of ease quickly turned to panic as I came to the cruel realization that none of this really prepares you for this ever-changing career path. As a PR professional, your schooling never really ends.

While I don’t believe that teachers purposely withhold useful information, I can’t help but feel as though college curriculums should some how incorporate the wisdom of publicists already “in the trenches.” There are simply some things that you’ll never learn until the first time you are thrust into a client crisis, a press conference, responding to negative news, event planning, etc. Learning by doing, or at least by example, is huge in this field.

So what is an inexperienced recent grad to do? It’s simple: everything. Volunteer to work on new projects and clients, listen closely to your colleagues’ pitching techniques and ask questions – lots of them. What’s more, join professional organizations and take a leadership role when possible. You’ll want to form your own contact base as soon as possible.

Finally, remember that as a PR newbie you can’t prepare for everything, especially when many of the situations you’ll encounter are completely new. Be honest about your capabilities and accept the fact that you won’t know everything, no matter how prepared you feel when you walk across a stage holding that diploma.

With the downfall of the economy, many companies feel that public relations services should be one of the first cost-cutting measures. However, in difficult economic times, the complete opposite is true. When times are tough, it’s more important than ever for small, medium and yes, even large-size companies to profile their services, corporate environment and community outreach efforts.

The public wants to see that companies are thriving and businesses are still succeeding, even during times like this. Think about it…There are only so many doom and gloom articles one person can read. This is exactly why many newspapers are turning to hyperlocalism, or featuring everything with a community angle. People want to read news that’s close to home, with a positive spin.

Also, everyone will always want to do business with successful entreprenuers and companies. Take the time to show the your current and potential customers who’s making things happen in the marketplace – publicize your new employees, awards, products, services – While your competitors are complaining about the state of the economy, your name will be in the headlines!

Furthermore, public relations isn’t only for the general public. It’s for employees as well. Employees feel a sense of pride when they see their company in the newspaper or on TV—they’re excited to tell their friends and family about it. Alternatively, when a company stops its public relations efforts, rumors can result about company trouble and uncertainty arises among employees.

Clearly public relations affects many more people than you might think—from employees and current clients, to future clients and the community at large. Despite tough economic times, it’s more important than ever to continue your efforts to get your name out there and remain on top of mind. You never know how many potential customers are out there watching, listening and reading.

The economy is taking its toll on newspapers across the country and South Florida is not immune. Just recently, the Miami Herald announced a 17 percent workforce reduction with many of those job cuts coming from the newsroom. And the same scenario is playing out at newspapers from Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville due to falling circulation and advertisers who are bolting for the web and other platforms.

So how is this downsizing affecting the way PR professionals do their jobs? A great deal.

The news hole is shrinking at most dailies as publishers try to maximize the space for advertisers they do have, and as a way to cut printing costs. So with less editorial space, that means it’s becoming more competitive to get news in the paper. And with staff cutbacks, reporters’ workloads are getting heavier. All this means story pitches need to be more targeted, concise, relevant and timelier than ever before.

In addition, many newspapers are tweaking the direction of their content to satisfy the perceived desires of their readers. It’s important that PR folks take note of these changes and tailor their pitches accordingly. You may have been successful in getting something in the paper last year, but this year the rules have changed. You might hear editors say, “We don’t cover that any more,” or “We’re covering that, but in a different way.”

It’s often easier to get news in the paper when pitching a specific beat reporter. However, with the downsizing of people, there’s also a downsizing of beats. Many beats are simply going away or reporters are being asked to double up.  This can be frustrating because if your news item doesn’t fit neatly into a “little box” or beat, it may get lost in a black hole. All this can lead to new opportunities however. For those reporters who are assigned new beats, they will be eager to learn all they can about the subject matters and you may have a client who can help them.

There’s another silver lining, or should I say a silver “on lining.” Many print reporters now have blogs were they can opine on issues that will never see the print edition. So in this case they invite ideas and discussion. As a publicist, you may have a better shot of getting your clients covered in a web story rather than in the paper which is a still a very positive thing because many of these blogs are widely read. Many experts think online news is the wave of the future. I grew up reading a newspaper and despite having the Internet at my fingertips, I still relish the idea of getting my daily information from the print edition. But such will not be the case with my children’s generation who get their news exclusively on line.

There’s a lot of anxiety in newsrooms these days, which means reporters now have a lot more to worry about then simply journalism which is their first love. So it’s very critical you are in tune with what’s happening and be very targeted with your pitches. You may also want to consider hiring a PR Agency to help get your message out. They spend their entire days talking with reporters, understanding their needs, following editorial changes and tracking all of personnel changes. The harder it is to get news in, the more you want to rely on a professional to do it.

Community relations is an excellent public relations tool, but it’s too often forgotten in many PR and marketing campaigns. When used effectively, community relations can significantly optimize one’s exposure in the media and corporate world increasing the public awareness about a company, individual, event or product. 

Executives in corporations should get involved with organizations that would both benefit their business and interests them. When one believes in the mission of a charity, they are more apt to participate in projects, attend meetings, etc., thus increasing exposure and networking with other key players who share the same common bond. Also, it’s important to remember that taking on a leadership position within an organization will only add to its business development value.

Attending fundraising events is another great way to network. What’s more, hosting/sponsoring those events is even more beneficial to a company.  Keep in mind that when hosting a charity fundraiser, it is important to take advantage of both pre- and post-publicity.   

When planning for pre-event PR, always distribute calendar announcements in time for printing deadlines to daily, weekly and monthly publications.

When it comes to post-event publicity, it’s vital to have a capable photographer at the event. A picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore, a single photo with a cut-line can sometimes be even more valuable to a publication than an article alone.

Finally, don’t be afraid to toot your own horn. The society pages are a great place for companies to be recognized for their work in the community. Most centers of influence not only read these publications but look forward to them every week.

It’s been a common practice among companies experiencing tough times to drastically cut their public relations and marketing budgets; however, in light of today’s economic state, many executives are finding the exact opposite to be true.

In fact, from a PR standpoint, an economic slump is a great time to get your message heard. While your competitors are cutting back and trying to limit their spending on their public relations and marketing, you should be ramping up yours! Send press releases to your local media and show them you’re available for interviews. Highlight your expertise, or maybe you have something unique or newsworthy they should know about?

When times are tough, non-profits and other civic organizations often suffer. Now is the perfect time to give back to your community and reap the networking benefits. Join a service organization or a civic association that interests you. It’s best to join a group that meets on a regular basis, like the Rotary Club. This will allow you to network and share your company with new people.

Also, become more conscious about marketing to your current customers or clients and ask them for a referral. While it seems like common sense, it’s often forgotten that your long-time clients are your biggest promoters.