Happy 7th Anniversary, Obsidian Public Relations!

Katie Pemberton

Today marks a milestone for Obsidian Public Relations—our seventh anniversary! 2012 was a whirlwind year for our firm, with an expansion into another market, new clients and our first full year in our new office in South Main. Let’s recap:

We moved into our digs at 493 S. Main in late 2011, and by this time last year, we were all settled in and loving the South Main life! For a cup of coffee or a bite of lunch, we just walk right next door to Bluff City Coffee or down the street and across the trolley tracks to Arcade. We can just about see the National Civil Rights Museum from our front window. We’re walking distance to great spots like Frank’s Deli, South of Beale, Muse and Hoot + Louise. We love it here, and we’d love you to come visit us sometime! 

We also kicked off serving our very first pro-bono clients from our PR 180° Project initiative—On Our Own for the first half of the year and Memphis Roller Derby in the second half. Our account reps had an amazing time getting to know these organizations and helping them meet their communications needs.

Early in 2012, we announced plans to expand the Obsidian PR name into another market—Dallas, Texas! Our managing director, Crissy Lintner, left the Bluff City and headed west with her family to put down roots in Dallas. She spent 2012 building our Dallas presence, networking and gaining clients, like the Humane Society of North Texas, TopMD Skin Care, Coquerel Family Wine Estates and Cockerell Dermatopathology. She was joined in the summer by another of our Memphis folks, Kerri Guyton, whose family moved to Tyler. Kerri expanded the Obsidian reach outside of Dallas into Smith County, where she completed some great communications projects for various clients, like the Renovation Conference and Holt Creative.

Here in Memphis, we landed some terrific new clients, as well. They included The Cupboard, Kroger’s Delta Division, Calvary Episcopal Church, Advanced Dermatology and Next Day Access.

Another big event from the past year was the completion and announcement of our 2012 social media survey. As in 2011, we partnered with Research Dynamics Inc. to conduct a quantitative survey on Mid-Southerners’ use of social media platforms. The findings showed a 15 percent increase in social media usage among Shelby County residents from last year.

We continued our tradition of monthly professional development initiatives, with each account rep organizing a different month’s training, including topics such as AP style, analysis of local television programming changes and the overhaul of our local media list. But don’t worry—we balanced all that and our client workloads with some fun team outings, like when we took a cooking class at the Church Health Center, chowed down at a Court Square Food Truck Rodeo and got our local shopping on at MemShop. We even let our four-legged friends get in on the fun when we invited our pets to the office for Take Your Dog to Work Day benefiting the Humane Society of Memphis & Shelby County in June!

Before we knew it, it was time again to open up nominations and voting for our 2013 PR 180° Project competition in Memphis. With more than 6,200 Facebook votes for 25 different local nonprofit organizations, The Blues Foundation and the Fire Museum of Memphis emerged as our winners, and they will each receive six months of pro-bono PR services in 2013.

All of us at Obsidian PR are thankful for a wonderful 2012 and look forward to many more years of meeting our clients’ communications needs and enjoying everything that Memphis and Dallas has to offer!

The Interview - What You Need to Know

Katie Pemberton

So, you got a reporter to agree to write a story about you? That’s great! Media coverage in respected publications and programs can make a huge impact on awareness of your company. But just because you’ve gotten the story, that doesn’t mean the work is over…the interview is the most important part! Yes, you will be talking about your company and/or yourself, a topic you are extremely familiar with. But just because you know your subject matter doesn’t necessarily mean you know the best way to present it.

At Obsidian, a major part of what we do is preparing clients and their representatives for interviews, whether it’s a live in-studio TV or radio interview, a taped TV interview or a phone interview. Several of our clients have very media-savvy CEOs who have a lot of interview experience; in those cases, our media prep may be limited to sending a list of potential questions the interviewer might ask. In many cases, though, especially with representatives who have less media experience, we go much more in-depth. For the kinds of interviewing advice we dispense to our clients, read on. 

• Prepare. Have any statistics, testimonials and other data handy so you can refer to it and give the reporter meaningful information to support your argument(s). Consider what kinds of questions the reporter might ask and practice your responses to those. Have someone you trust give you a mock interview to give you feedback on your answers and delivery. 
• If you don’t know the answer, do NOT guess. It’s OK if you are doing an interview about a local hunger initiative and you don’t know how many people worldwide go hungry. But be honest about that and don’t guess the number—you never know who might repeat that number and use it again. In a case like this one, respond this way, “I’m actually not sure about the global hunger statistics, but what I can tell you is that one in four people in our community are uncertain where their next meal is coming from.” Remember that “what I can tell you” phrase. It will become a powerful tool in your interviewing arsenal.
• Keep the interview on track. Especially in a live interview, the line of questioning can go off the rails quickly. Yes, it is the interviewer’s job to stay on topic, but you must share that burden if you want your message to be heard. You have secured precious and valuable time with a reporter—do NOT let it be squandered by going off topic. The first step in this piece of advice is to make sure that you pitch the reporter or producer accurately and honestly (don’t sell the reporter on one thing and expect to bait-and-switch her into writing about something else).  If the interviewer at some point goes off topic, that’s when you pull out your “what I can tell you” trick! Respond to an off-topic question with this phrase, “I don’t know about that, but what I can tell you is that…”
• Speak only for yourself and your organization. There are very few scenarios in which you should talk about any other organization, and certainly you should never bad-mouth another organization. Don’t fall into the “what do you think” trap. “What do you think about Competitor X’s announcement that they’re cutting jobs in Tennessee?” or “What do you think about Competitor X’s new product?” Don’t feel that you HAVE to answer questions that make you uncomfortable, but know that “no comment” is not the right way to handle these types of questions. I would counsel my client to respond with something like, “I can’t speak for Competitor X, but what I can tell you (there it is again!) is that we have created 24 new jobs in the Memphis area in the past year.” Bring the attention away from other organizations and back to your company.
• Use positive language, and in your response, avoid repeating any negative language that may be in a reporter’s question. 
• Don’t use jargon unless you are interviewing with a reporter who works only in your industry. For example, if you’re in logistics, a writer for Logistics Business, a trade magazine. Otherwise, speak in layman’s terms.
• Channel your mother’s voice in your head, and sit up straight, use positive body language and be aware of your facial expressions. For TV interviews, I tell clients, “Sit up so straight you feel stupid, and smile almost to the point of feeling stupid.” For most of us who are not on TV all the time, having perfect posture and smiling constantly do not feel natural. But when you watch your interview back later, you’ll be glad if you sat up straight and smiled, and probably not like the way you looked if you slouched and frowned or had a neutral face. The exception to this rule would be any controversial or serious topic. Your facial expressions should be appropriate to the content.

Remember, every interview or scenario is different. The first piece of advice I gave is the most important one: prepare. Whether you do that with a colleague, friend or a trusted PR partner, you will never regret investing an hour into your company’s reputation.

The no 'no comment' rule

Katie Pemberton

At Obsidian, one way that we really bring value to clients is through crisis management. In a time of crisis – large or small, internal or external – we work with the client to determine what should be said to key stakeholders (including media), how it should be said, who should say it, when it should be said, in what medium should it be said…you get the idea.

One common instinct that we see with many new clients is the impulse to respond to a tricky question with, “no comment.” If this is something you can envision yourself saying to a reporter asking about a crisis, you must fight the urge to duck and run because that’s exactly what a “no comment” response is: the verbal equivalent of running and hiding under a rock, hoping your bad situation will just go away on its own. Wouldn’t it be great if it were that easy? Trust me, it’s not.

There are many words that you would probably want your target audience to associate with your organization: strong, innovative, trustworthy, responsive, caring and so on. But when you say “no comment,” here are some words that come to a reader’s mind: Evasive. Secretive. Shady. It makes the reader wonder what you are hiding and why.

Certainly, there are circumstances during which you are legally very limited in what you can say, such as lawsuits or ongoing investigations. The trick is to always be prepared to say SOMETHING, even if you can’t address the actual item the reporter has asked about. Here’s our philosophy: There is ALWAYS something good to say. To give you a better idea, take a look at these two sample exchanges between a CEO and a reporter.

    Reporter: “Can you tell me where you stand with your employee who was arrested for                        fraud?”
    CEO:        “No comment.”

    Reporter: “Can you tell me where you stand with your employee who was arrested 
                     for fraud?”
    CEO:        “I’m sure you understand that I’m not able to speak on the details of an                      ongoing investigation, but what I can tell you is that we are evaluating our                      procedures and tightening our controls to prevent anything like this in the                      future. Our customers, employees and shareholders are extremely                      important to us, and it is our No. 1 goal to protect their investment of 
                     money and time.”

There’s no “I” in team

Katie Pemberton

“No man is an island…and therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

In John Donne’s Meditation 17, he emphasizes the interconnectedness of mankind. It’s also a pretty accurate metaphor for our culture here at Obsidian PR. You see, although each client is officially represented by ONE Obsidian staffer, that client also has the ideas, expertise and experience of the entire agency in its corner. That’s because no account rep is “an island.”

As you may have read about in a previous “From the Rock” post, group brainstorming is a pretty major part of what we do here at Obsidian. There are many times that brainstorming among the entire Obsidian staff might be used for a client:

• When the relationship starts, to get everyone’s input on broad things, like overarching goals, or more specific things, like story pitching ideas or social media tactics
• When the client is starting a new initiative or event and the account rep wants to consider ALL ideas for promoting, helping plan and execution
• When the client has a problem or issue and needs our help overcoming the challenge
• When the client wants some ideas for a tagline or new company or product name

I can tell you as an account rep who has handled several of these types of projects, it is a major asset to the work I do to have our team providing input, guidance and feedback.
 
In addition to the formal brainstorming, there are many other ways that Obsidian functions as a unit, preventing any account rep from ever being the sole person servicing a client. 
Both the Dallas and Memphis locations have a manager of the team who keeps an eye on all client work from an aerial view, providing guidance and ideas to the account rep that she might not have seen from where she is “on the ground” executing tactical work.
 
Yet another example of how Obsidian fosters a great community and group dynamic is how we are all able to fill in for each other when needed. For example, if an account rep is going to be out of town during an important client event, he will transition all of the materials, from the publicity timeline to the contact list and the event planning notes, to another account rep, and that account rep will execute the last-minute promotional tactics, attend the event to field media, coordinate timing as needed, etc. Each account rep will ensure that client work is taken care of (by other staffers, if needed) while out of the office.
 
But sometimes things come up for a client, such as a media crisis, that can’t be predicted, which has actually happened with a client while the account rep was out of town. Fortunately, Obsidian’s culture is such that the team manager was totally up to speed on the client’s issue, and the other account executives had a solid foundation of information about the client from all the collaborative activities we had done. The team manager and the other account executive tag-teamed the crisis and handled it seamlessly while the original account rep was 1,500 miles away.
 
I also like Donne’s advice not to “send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” He was talking about death, but I look at it in a more abstract and therefore positive way. I equate a bell tolling to when we have had a great success for a client, such as a front-page news story. Even if it wasn’t one of MY personal clients, I am still excited for the success of one of OUR clients, and one of OUR account reps. So that bell…it still tolls for me.

Getting to know the final two...

 

An animal advocate from Memphis and a Louisina-native who bleeds purple and gold, Katie Pemberton and Kelli Eason are our final "getting to know Obsidian" entries. Both are equally as passionate about PR as they are about their personal loves for animals and football. 

Katie Pemberton

Katie and her BFFs

Birthday: 9/8/81
Hometown: Millington, Tenn.
College: Lambuth University (now The University of Memphis at Lambuth)

All-time favorite restaurant:
Imagine Vegan Cafe

Favorite thing to do in Memphis:
Spend an hour or two with my dog on a beautiful spring or fall day at the “big girl” dog park, as we call it, at Shelby Farms

What is your favorite cause?
Humane Society of Memphis & Shelby County, which rescues and rehabilitates injured and abused pets in our community, and Mercy for Animals, a national nonprofit dedicated to preventing cruelty to farmed animals and promoting compassionate food choices and policies.

Favorite Facebook page and Twitter account:
Facebook: Humane Society of Memphis & Shelby County
Twitter: @azizansari

How old were you when you got your first cell phone?
I think it was when I graduated high school.

Favorite book:
The "Harry Potter" series, of course!

Favorite pastime:
Curling up with a good book or finding a new (or new to me) series on TV to waste entire weekends on.

First car:
1987 Toyota Celica

If you could go back in time and live during a different era, which would you choose?
I am fascinated by “the olden days,” but I definitely don’t buy that they were the “good old days.” It seems to me that in the “good old days,” a lot of people got hung without trials, sold as property, set on fire for being “witches,” women were their fathers’ and/or husbands’ property, and it wasn’t OK to stand out or be different. I’d like to visit lots of times from the 1800s on up, but the thought of living in them is terrifying. I think we are living in the best time right now.

What was your first paying job?
I worked in a florist as an assistant. To this day, the smell of oriental lilies makes me ill.

If your life had a soundtrack what song would you pick for it?
Definitely “Oh Happy Day” as performed by the St. Francis High School Choir (from the CLASSIC “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit”)

What TV show are you embarrassed about watching?
"Toddlers & Tiaras"! I need it to remind me that I’m a really good person, relatively speaking.

What was the first concert you went to see?
Randy Travis

If you were an Olympic athlete, in what sport would you compete?
I am really sad that it’s too late in life for me to be a gymnast. I can vault and tumble only in spirit.

What is the most disgusting thing you have ever eaten?
Olives. They taste like death. And I hate sushi a lot.

If you could have a drink with someone from, history who would it be? 

Doris Day

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Kelli Eason

Kelli

Birthday: Jan. 6, 1987
Hometown: Lake Charles, La.
College: Louisiana State University

All-time favorite restaurant:
Darrell's — in my hometown of Lake Charles. They have the best po-boys, and I make an effort to go there whenever I'm home.

Favorite thing to do in Memphis:
Go to festivals…I love when something like Cooper-Young Beer Festival, Hot Wing Festival, Memphis in May, Italian Festival or another is going on.

What is your favorite cause?
Youth development (I've volunteered as a one-on-one mentor and as a youth cheerleading coach).

Favorite Facebook page and Twitter account:
Facebook: tie between Memphis (I Love Memphis) 

and LSU.  

Kelli and fiance, Blake

Twitter: tie between @mashable and @mentalfloss

How old were you when you got your 

first cell phone?
17

  

Favorite book:
"The Giver"

Favorite pastime:
Family Christmases — or any huge family gathering, really. We have weird traditions like Dirty Santa on my dad's side (which my uncle always throws a wrench into) and 

bonfires/skeet shooting with my mom's side. 

Kelli and family

First car:
2000 Saturn something. It was a five-speed manual and didn't have power locks or windows!

If you could go back in time and live during a different era, which would you choose? 1950s…provided I still get central A/C in my house. :)

What was your first paying job?
Babysitting, if we're getting technical, but my first real job was an aid at St. Luke-Simpson Preschool for the 2 to 5 year olds.

If your life had a soundtrack, what song would you pick for it?
Glee-style mashup of "Proud Mary" and "Louisiana Saturday Night" on a loop with "A Southern Thing" by Better Than Ezra (changing the male Kelly in the song to a female Kelli, of course).

What TV show are you embarrassed about watching?
"Teen Mom"

What was the first concert you went to see?
I honestly cannot remember. I do remember being really upset that my mom wouldn’t drive us to Houston or New Orleans to see 'NSYNC, though.

If you were an Olympic athlete, in what sport would you compete?
Ideally, gymnastics. Realistically…maybe I could get good enough at curling or racewalking to have a legitimate shot!

What is the most disgusting thing you have ever eaten?
Whipped cream, and it's not even close. That is the most disgusting food.

If you could have a drink with someone from history, who would it be?
Walt Disney and/or Milton Hershey

If you could live in any other country for two years, where would you go?
One of the places on my bucket list — Thailand, Singapore, Greece, Spain…Bora Bora.