Five Ways to Elevate Your PRSA Conference Experience

The 2011 Public Relations Society of America International Conference kicks off this weekend in Orlando, welcoming communications professionals from multiple industries and geographies. With top-tier keynotes,  dozens of professional development sessions, a hall crammed with vendors, an extensive hotel complex, and a city designed for visitors, it can take some time to get acclimated, especially for the new attendee.

Since we've been lacing up our PRSA conference boots for the past decade, it's only fair to share a few secrets from our survival guide:

1. Download the PRSA Mobile App. Use your iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Windows Phone to view the extensive conference program, glance at venue maps, look up local dining and entertainment options, and even see contact details for other conference attendees. Get it here.


2. Tap into Conference Social Media Tools. Even if you've seen social media incorporated at other conferences, be prepared to be blown away by its use in Orlando. Follow the #PRSAICON hashtag on Twitter to read realtime updates from other attendees. Follow PRSA speakers at @McDougallTC/prsa-2011-conf-speakers and Leadership Assembly delegates at @MikeMcDoug/prsa-2011-assembly. Check into multiple FourSquare conference locations and sessions. Even send a bit of what you're hearing to colleagues back home by using UStream.

3. Believe the Buzz. PRSA volunteers worked incredibly hard on programming, resulting in a wide variety of professional development topics. So how can you choose the best? A lot rests on the speaker, not just the content. Ask around as to who usually packs a room. See who's actively promoting their sessions on social media platforms (i.e., it means they want you there!). If you've seen a speaker in recent years and he/she is back, feedback must have been good, so see them again discussing a different topic.

4. Find the Gems. Identify at least one professional development session that you wouldn't normally think to attend, and show up there. Doing so lets you stretch your brain, perhaps meet a difference segment of attendees, and even find hidden-in-plain-sight practices that you could bring to your own industry.

5. Use Your Room for Sleeping. Despite the temptation "to get some work done," don't hole up in your hotel room. The conference is a rare chance to network with peers from across the globe, so spend as much time as possible in the hallways, at the sessions, walking the exhibits, and encountering smart, enthusiastic pros and students at every turn.

What's your secret survival tip? Post it in the comments, and we'll share an updated list this weekend. See you in Orlando!

Excerpt #2: Balancing Corporate & Personal Brands

The following is the second excerpt from "Walking the Wire: Striking a Balance Between Corporate and Personal Brands" as presented by Mike McDougall at the Ragan Communications / Southwest Airlines conference in October 2011.

This tip may be one of the most important -- seek the true believers.

Whom do you want associated  with your company brand? Employees who already live and breathe it, who support it, who understand it.

Influencers have always existed in organizations, well before the advent of social media. Go “old school” and work with these colleagues who have been honing their personal brands for years. For those who haven't extended their brands into the digital realm, help them make the leap. Remember that we're aiming for a symbiotic relationship -- you have to give to get.

While this technique could have national or international benefits in some cases, don’t overlook the hyper-local approach. Some personal brands can be more effective in a small sphere – for instance, at a particular office or plant location. Find those influencers, and make sure they're acting as ambassadors for the company with the full backing of the communications team.

To read additional insights from the discussion, bookmark the PR Schism or follow our Twitter feed (@McDougallTC). For a copy of the presentation slides, contact us at info@McDougallTC.com.

Soapbox: The "Look at Me" Mistake

"Look at me, look at me! Hey, over here. Right here! Yoo-hoo. Look. At. Me. NOW!"

You all remember that kid from the playground. The one who always felt the need to be the center of attention, even if she wasn't relevant to the conversation. And of course you recall what happened next -- you and your friends tried even harder to ignore her.

I always cringe when the same occurs in the public relations profession, with the same predictable results. It's an agency overloading the room when meeting with their advertising and marketing counterparts. A corporate PR manager trying to "own" all aspects of social media without realizing it's a shared responsibility. Industry spokespeople trying to somehow prove PR's worth by trumpeting new studies, such as this post by PRSA CEO Rosanna Fiske.

Having practiced public relations for nearly two decades, I'm proud of the profession. I love what I do. The results that my teams and I have produced have made a measurable difference for dozens of clients, companies and causes around the world. What could be better than that?

The problem lies not in that pride, but believing that telling is better than showing. When choosing sides for a playground soccer game, no one wants to listen to the kid over on the swings waving his arms for attention. They gravitate toward the kid who can bring her skills onto the field, score a few goals, and share her secret stash of candy with teammates afterward.

In the corporate setting, business leaders don't want to hear their executives go on-and-on about their functional prowess. You don't hear colleagues in finance talking about why they're needed. You don't hear the head of human resources trying to push a new SHRM study detailing HR's value into the hands of the CEO. "But they've already made it onto the radar," you say.

News flash -- so has communications and PR in many organizations around the globe. How? Not by talking about the function, but by proving its business value. By showing outcomes that are tied directly to business outcomes. By making a visible difference in how the company conducts itself.

Talk is cheap. For a profession in which talk plays such a large role, that's a lesson that's too often overlooked.

Excerpt #1: Balancing Corporate & Personal Brands

The following is an excerpt from "Walking the Wire: Striking a Balance Between Corporate and Personal Brands" as presented by Mike McDougall at the Ragan Communications / Southwest Airlines conference in October 2011.

Here's your first tip when trying to balance your corporate brand with your employees' personal brand efforts: establish mutual expectations.

For you Star Trek fans in the room, there are no mind melds. Assuming your people know what's right is... well... wrong. Without guidelines -- whether a written policy or even a conversation -- you're asking for trouble, especially with the evolution of digital outreach.

Leave some room for the gray areas -- you don't want to handcuff yourself via policy when markets change or opportunities arise. Consider incorporating the guidelines into an existing corporate code of conduct on business and ethical behavior, which should be broad enough to cover most scenarios, whether in the physical or digital worlds.

Then reinforce those guidelines with action and recognition -- highlight members of your team who themselves are achieving balance. This will go much further than simply asking employees to read and sign a 20-page policy document (which they'll promptly forget in less than a week, if they read it at all).

To glean additional insights from the discussion, bookmark the PR Schism or follow our Twitter feed (@McDougallTC). For a copy of the presentation slides, contact us at info@McDougallTC.com.

What's on Your (Physical) Wall?

What’s on your wall? No, not your Facebook wall. Your company’s walls. In hallways, in lunchrooms, on the manufacturing floor?

These walls tell the story of your organization, communicate your culture, record your history, and inspire your teams. So why do most communicators ignore them?

Sure, you were called in last year when the main lobby needed a makeover. Or when a board member visited and wanted the entry hallway to have more pep (a true story). But what about the yards – if not miles – of other walls across the company?

In most cases, you’ve placed control of those halls into the hands of the people who occupy the cubicles and offices nearby. Empowerment is good, but a complete handover is not. The later manifests itself in tired, faded wall hangings that – especially as turnover occurs – don’t reflect the organization today (or showcase the “unique” tastes of the past inhabitants).

In the case of that board member request, the charge came to the communications group to “revitalize” the hallways. A few weeks later, those halls were brightened, a company historical timeline built ad installed, and plasma screens hung to display corporate news.

Problem solved, right? Wrong.

As the communications team counseled prior to the start of the project, the hallways reflect the culture of the organization – that drab, defeated feeling was not the paint scheme at work, but overall employee morale and satisfaction. Sure, a physical pick-me-up can help begin to turn the tide, but not without a more transformative culture shift. The “revitalization” was essentially a veneer, not a solution to the underlying issue.

So who gets it right? Southwest Airlines. I’ve spent the past day at its headquarters in Dallas, having been invited to speak at a Ragan Communications conference. Adorning every wall surface are testaments to the culture the company has built over the past four decades – framed Southwest t-shirts, thank you letters from school children, photos of employees across the U.S., customer testimonials, awards, and more. It’s like gazing at tapestries as you walk the halls of the Vatican Museum – they seemingly go on forever, and the same holds true at Southwest. You’re in awe. Bingo!

These halls are curated, but not because of a corporate mandate or misguided executive. They are the spirit of the company in physical form, reconnecting employees and visitors to the entire Southwest experience. More importantly, they’re authentic.

So don’t ignore your walls. They’re begging to exhibit what makes your organization and its people unique, desperately wanting to tell a story. Your role? Help them speak.

Learning from the Dunkin' Guy

It was a few minutes before 7 a.m. when my car swung into the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot. Shuffling into the store in need of caffeine and a toasted bagel, I ambled into line behind a few other like-minded souls.

You could hear him before you saw him -- rustling paper "to go" bags, dropped utensils and the furious ping of prepared egg patty trays against their steel warmers. It was the 17-year-old Dunkin' guy, working with all his might to fill the flurry of orders coming from the counter and the drive through.

What stuck out was not his determination to meet a new speed record for ham-on-croissant preparation, which was clearly evident. No, it was the way in which he was going about it -- so fast and eager to please his 19-year-old manager that he made two wrong moves for every right one. Bags were dropped, cheese fell to the floor, and the wrong orders were handed to the wrong customer.

He needed to slow his pace, shifting his goal mix more toward accuracy than velocity.

What I saw at Dunkin' occurs in offices across the U.S. every day, and more pointedly for this blog, in communications and advertising agencies at an alarming clip. Newly-minted assistant account executives and interns throw their entire day into warp drive, hoping beyond hope that they score big to attract notice of their peers and their clients. The results aren't pretty -- high stress, higher probabilities of failure, and high turnover.

For some senior practitioners, it's too easy to proffer that such is a right of passage. In an environment where every client dollar has to be stretched further and made to work harder, that's no longer an option. Instead, we have to coach, to mentor, to bring more junior members into the fold as to what it means to work smarter.

A simple solution? Absolutely. So get going, and grab me an egg-and-cheese on a multi-grain while you're at it.

Day Two Syndrome

It's the point in time to which everyone looks forward. The big launch. The unveiling. Go day. Teams are pumped. Buzz is spreading online. E-mails are flying, There's a palpable energy in the air, built on a mix of adrenaline and caffeine.

And then comes day two.

If you're like many executives, your go-to-market plan is brilliantly sketched out through the first 24 hours of launch (or for lucky ones, the first week or month). But move beyond that initial, euphoric entry of your "baby" into the world, and detailed plans likely encounter a steep decline.

We know your pain. Having launched seemingly every manner of product, service or concept over the past couple of decades, getting teams excited about day two is incredibly difficult. They want to bask in their new-found glory, trying to make is last while getting a well-deserved breather. [Multiply this by a factor of 10 if you happened to have launched at an industry convention in Las Vegas!]

At McDougall Travers Collins, we're on day two ourselves. Even with some of the best minds in the business, we're not immune to these issues either (although we keep hoping for the discovery of the day two vaccine, available for convenient dosing at your local Walgreens).

So what can you do? Build at least a basic post-launch structure, and then set the expectation of how your teams will need to execute against it. Speak to the launch as not a singular day, but as a series of interconnected events. Implement a rewards system beginning on day two for continued incentive. Rotate out staff who are burning the midnight oil, giving them some much-needed R&R.

Most importantly, acknowledge the common day two slump, and ask your team to work together to overcome it. They circled the wagons to get your idea off the ground, and keeping them engaged and excited sets apart a manager from a true business leader.

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Do you have a day two tip or insight? Share it here.

PR & Marcom Industry Veterans Launch
McDougall Travers Collins
New Firm Offers Senior-Level Reputation Counsel to Businesses Worldwide

ROCHESTER and BUFFALO, N.Y., September 22, 2011 — Public relations and communications executive Mike McDougall today announced he is partnering with Buffalo, N.Y.-based marketing communications agency Travers Collins to form a new firm. McDougall Travers Collins (MTC) focuses on domestic and international businesses that require senior-level strategic counsel and execution to restore, protect and enhance their brands.

McDougall Travers Collins is headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., and will closely collaborate with Travers Collins, which has grown to 40 people since its founding in 1995.

“Over the past several years, Bob Travers, Bill Collins and I have discussed joining forces when the time was right,” said McDougall, MTC’s managing partner. “After spending nearly a decade in corporate leadership roles, it became increasingly clear that there’s a growing need for deeply experienced reputation counsel – peers who have walked in the shoes of our clients.”

McDougall was most recently the global vice president of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs for eye health giant Bausch & Lomb Incorporated, helping steer the organization through a highly tumultuous period. From 2003 to 2007, he served as worldwide public relations director and worldwide market development director for Eastman Kodak Company’s consumer digital business, driving a renewed appreciation for the company’s consumer electronics portfolio and underlying technologies. Earlier in his career, he advised more than 50 entrepreneurial ventures, mid-sized businesses and Fortune 100 enterprises while holding leadership roles at Buck & Pulleyn, Inc. and Giles Communications.

“In today’s high-pressure, high-return business environment, there’s no substitute for experienced leadership,” noted Collins, principal of Travers Collins. “Adding Mike’s expertise in global affairs as well as multiple business-to-business and consumer industries complements the senior team we’ve cultivated in our Buffalo office. This collaboration is a win for our current and future clients across the region and around the world.”

The firm’s reputation-related services include public relations, social/digital media development, employee communications, advertising, marketing communications, investor relations and corporate philanthropy management. It will operate under the McDougall Travers Collins brand from its Rochester operations, while the Buffalo office will retain the Travers Collins brand. Supplementing their in-house expertise, both firms have direct access to an extensive network of agency partners across six continents. For additional information, visit www.McDougallTC.com.

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Headquartered at the Larkin at Exchange Building, Travers Collins (www.traverscollins.com) is one of Buffalo-Niagara's largest locally owned and operated marketing communications firms, employing a staff of 40. Travers Collins has expertise in advertising, public relations, investor relations and digital strategies. Founded in 1995, the firm is a member of one of the leading networks of advertising agencies, the Transworld Advertising Agency Network (TAAN).

Scars slow to heal...

The New York Downtown Marriott had just reopened its doors. It was May 2002, and I was in lower Manhattan for a meeting at the hotel. Arriving early, I checked in then showed my key to the elevator attendant -- security was still tighter than normal. Stepping off on a high floor and glancing out the window, I was left without words.

Although months had passed, the scars of that fateful morning had not. Now, 10 years after the attack, I'm publishing these images for the first time.

When Brands Collide: Personal vs. Corporate

The following originally appeared as a June 2011 Management POV column in PR News.

@ScottMonty is an unlikely Twitter handle for Ford Motor Company’s leading presence on the site. “I knew that I had the ability to leverage my personal brand on behalf of the company,” said Monty, Ford’s global digital and multimedia communications manager in a recent Fortune story discussing his move to the automaker in 2008. Thousands of existing, personal online fans followed him to Ford.

But when Monty eventually leaves Ford, will his fans pick-up and travel with him? Possibly so. This is just one dilemma of the increasingly complex intersection between personal and organizational brands.

Not Just Online

Today’s unsettled personal-organizational brand relationships are not just confined to the digital world. Cast your eye toward the recent challenges at Kodak with its chief marketing officer – a bigger-than-life communicator who focused on advancing the company’s brand, but in time concentrated more on his own persona.

After leading the company into a number of semi-high profile ventures such as reality TV appearances and strolls down Hollywood red carpets, he left the photography giant this summer. It’s no coincidence that his departure “to pursue personal projects” came just a few days after his much-publicized business book hit shelves, and weeks after his promotional efforts became more self-focused than Kodak-focused.

But for every negative story, there are also tales of positive personal brand usage to advance organization agendas and vice versa. A small non-profit suddenly gets massive exposure after an employee performs a heroic act. Or a multinational company starts an ambassador program, pumping resources into star employees to encourage them to broadly share their experiences.

So how do the organization and the individual achieve symbiosis in this new environment?

• Establish guidelines and expectations for shared branding. These may exist as part of formal policy or as an informal agreement, depending on your governance culture. Be as explicit as possible as to what is encouraged and what is not acceptable, leaving some “gray” to account for unexpected opportunities.

• Train and coach. Policy or informal agreement means little without active coaching. Have regular discussions with individuals and groups about what’s working well, and where challenges are arising with personal brands. Don’t limit this to your organization – look to competitors and outside your industry to see how others are succeeding or failing.
  
  
• Tap existing influencers. Influencers have always existed in organizations, well before the advent of social media. Go “old school” and work with these colleagues who likely have been honing their personal brands for years. While this technique could have national or international benefits in some cases, don’t forget the hyper-local approach. Some personal brands can be more effective in a small sphere – for instance, at a particular office or plant location.
  
  
• Address the problem children. Ignoring a company-personal brand conflict won’t make it disappear. I’m reminded of a local market TV station where a top reporter blends questionable, highly subjective content with occasional news blurbs via Twitter. In effect, the reporter has become the story, growing a base of followers greater than the station itself. By not actively addressing her behavior, the reputation of the station – and its news team as a whole – is at risk.
  
  
• Reward success. If the organization-personal brand relationship is intended to be mutually beneficial, both parties should be clear in their expectation of benefits. For the organization contributing resources, are the personal brands of its employees or volunteers driving awareness, sales or other desirable metrics? For the contributing individuals, are they benefiting through increased responsibility, exposure, or even compensation?
  
  
• Have a plan for when things go wrong. What happens if a “branded” employee is arrested for a serious crime then continues to unofficially represent the company? What if the company faces corruption charges, sullying the reputation of everyone associated with it? Both the organization and its employees need to prepare themselves for unexpected change or disruption.
  

Know Your “Off Ramp”

“We need our brand to be consistent, and our organization to be seen as stable in the community,” says a development director at a major non-profit service group. “It’s a challenge to determine if elevating the profiles of individual team members will ultimately help or hurt that, since we know that over time some people will come and go.”

The challenge of shared organizational-personal branding is not a new one, but it’s taking on a new dynamic in today’s semi-unstructured digital environment. This is especially true when a company and employee choose to part ways.

It’s essential to ascertain how both parties wish to communicate a departure to fans and followers, especially in digital media channels. Is there a formal desire to ‘transfer’ fans to the organization? If so, to whom? Will the employee continue to be an unofficial ambassador, or should ties be severed completely?

Ask these questions at the onset of the program – as with any communications venture, never engage without having an exit strategy in hand. In some cases, you may choose to refrain from entering at all.

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 Mike McDougall will address how to co-manage corporate and personal brands during Ragan's "Communicating Your Company Story" conference on October 4 at Southwest Airlines' headquarters in Dallas.