Indians Baseball on Pinterest = Happy Fans

Baseball season starts next week week. More importantly, Cleveland Indians baseball starts next Thursday – my most favorite time of year. Sadly, living in Western New York doesn’t lend itself to participating much in live games, but I’ve purchased MLB.TV to fulfill that void.

To me, there’s nothing better than a baseball game. Tom Hamilton, the Tribe’s AM radio play-by-play announcer is one of the league’s best. He can paint a picture of every play, every hit, every stolen base. His home run calls are the best because you can see his eyes widening and feel his lungs filling with air when he screams “WAAAAAAYYYY BACK … GONNNNNNNNE!” Check out any of these YouTube videos to see what I mean.

I’m excited to see what new talent comes forth this year, as the Tribe still claims to be in “rebuilding” times, a familiar term for Cleveland clubs. The #bullpenmafia is juggling around starters, relievers and closers to find the right rotations – especially after the whole Fausto Carmona debacle (sheesh, that was embarrassing).

While I can’t go to as many games as I’d like, the Tribe is making it easier than ever for out-of-town fans to enjoy the ball club through social media. Twitter and Facebook have always been go-to sources for Tribe news and in-game commentary. Cleveland has a great, entertaining (and articulate?) sports reporting community complete with journalists, bloggers, freelancers and life-long fans who post online.

New this year, is a Tribe baseball Pinterest account. Words cannot contain my excitement. This chick loves baseball. Now, I will be able to connect with other chicks who love baseball on one of my favorite social media platforms.

The Indians account features some of the following boards:

• Tribe Eats: awesome Tribe-inspired culinary delights
• Indians Shop (Kids, Men and Women): the newest outerwear and Indians fashion
• Tribe Memories: back when the Indians created more smiles than tears
• Tribe Pride: pins from fans of Indians baseball

Indians Cake from Pinterest

Between Twitter, Facebook, MLB.TV and Pinterest, I’ll almost be able to taste the ballpark hotdogs and insanely-priced beer. Strikeout batters will almost be able to feel my wrath and the evil glares I send their way through cyber space.

Pinterest is a great way for brands to interact with fans, and I’m glad to see the Indians jump on board – especially considering the large female fan population hanging around. It must be something about the high-rise socks. Pinterest allows fans to share visual favorites on organized boards – and cross pollinate content on Twitter and Facebook.

I forsee the Indians Pinterest account generating more content than expected – it’s a perfect platform for the Pinterest audience of women. Afterall, it is estimated that more than 90 percent of Pinterest users are women. Women love taking photos, women love sharing, women love baseball and women love Pinterest. It’s a match made in baseball heaven.

Katie Corbut, Account Coordinator

Don’t Lose Your Message: The Art of Translation

It’s the era of global communications, with a story (or rumor!) in one market appearing at the speed of light thousands of miles away. While the world’s most advanced technology has made this possible, the allure of a universal translator to overcome language barriers is still some years away (despite some very good attempts uch as Google’s Language Tools).

MTC has been working with global clients for years, including recent programs in France, Switzerland, China and Mexico that required translation. How can you ensure that your message won’t get lost between languages? We’ve compiled a few pointers that may help:

Visualize the end product. When using a translation services partner, it’s important to outline the scope of the project before the materials hand-off. If creating a brochure or other piece of collateral material, a translation service with design capabilities can be a life saver. This ensures your materials look as good as they sound, especially if working with unfamiliar character sets where line breaks may not be evident to the untrained eye.

Learn to love sentiment and catch phrases. My French grandmother said “bar salad” into her early 90s. Be careful to not overlook local euphemisms or catch phrases along the way because of language differences, as well as sentiment and satire. If these are important to the mix, you will want to evaluate whether to press ahead with direct translation versus a copy adaptation.

Cover your bases. If you have the ability to run draft translated copy by someone in your overseas office prior to final approvals, build in the time to make it happen. As much as a service may provide fluent translators, on-the-ground colleagues are usually able to confirm that copy syncs to local tonality and turn of phrase.

Make your deadline. When establishing your time frame, work in extra days in the event that copy needs to be changed. Make sure your translation service knows your deadline, especially since many global jobs have little flex time because of printing and shipping demands.

Rushing documents through translation can be done (at a cost, of course), but always allow a minimum of 36 to 48 hours to get the job done right. Your translation service will work best when they have more details than needed to complete the project.

Have you worked with a translation service for your business or client? We’d love to hear your tips, too!

Katie Corbut, Account Coordinator

Snapshot: Inside Silver Anvil Judging

What does Silver Anvil judging look like? Here's a view from inside the judges room last Friday in Manhattan. I'd say more, but the long-arm of PRSA would find me! Winners will be announced in early June -- good luck to all the finalists.

Welcome to the family, Mr. ADDY!

Why the "Coach" Wins in Social Media

The topic is a regular one among peers in the marketing, communications and advertising industries. "Who owns social media?"

Stop the bickering and land grabs -- no single discipline "owns" it, but every corporate function has a responsibility to play its part.

What about those teams who are planting their flag in the SM social media space and begin protecting it as "their" domain? As more executives become versed in the digital landscape -- and see its impact from a holistic point of view -- they're beginning to see that some individuals and groups are only it it for the pride, for the (supposed) job security, or because they fear that others may outshine them.

So turn the tables. Instead of building walls and protecting your turf, become the social evangelist. Look broadly at the implications of real-time content dissemination and of placing a global megaphone in the hands of individuals. Ask tough questions about your organizations' preparedness to deal with new socially-driven behaviors and technologies. Recommend solutions, then band together to put them in place.

Pull in your colleagues from customer service, legal, human resources and operations. Share best practices, but also take time to listen -- those who are unfamiliar with social media minutiae sometimes offer the most nontraditional and valuable insights.

Being a leader in social media is dependent of making room for others, and acknowledging that no one person -- or discipline -- can see the entire playing field. In an industry where boasts and bravado have dominated for decades, it's becoming the era not of the star, but of the coach.

McDougall: New Definition of PR is "Vanilla"

Excerpted from PR News Online (March 2, 2012):
By Bill Miltenberg

As public relations evolves and incorporates a suite of new digital strategies and concepts, so too must its working definition. That's why the Public Relations Society of America's Public Relations Defined initiative fielded suggestions from PR pros, academics and students, as well as the public, to help redefine PR itself.

More than 900 suggested definitions were winnowed by PRSA to three finalists. The winning definition, by popular vote: Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. 
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Mike McDougall, APR, and managing partner of McDougall Travers Collins and a member of PR News' Advisory Board, says the new definition result is a "bit vanilla," but that's to be expected when trying to crowdsource a definition that needs to encompass a big-tent profession. "It will play well in a textbook, but not so well in business," says McDougall. "This definition could apply to related professions—IR, government affairs, customer service and even sales in some instances. The best we can hope is that someone hearing the definition will ask for clarification, forcing practitioners to provide a more focused explanation as to their value and expertise."
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Read the full story by clicking here.