What keeps me up at night?

Crissy Lintner

A PR person’s brain never stops. Never. No, really. Never stops. I guess technically, one’s brain never really stops, so let me qualify that statement: a PR executive’s thoughts are always racing – and generally, we’re OK with that (see Kerri’s recent post “Why I would do my job for free”). But what is it that keeps us up at night? I thought it might be fun to clue everyone in. Welcome to a night in Crissy’s brain at bedtime:

Wish I hadn’t had that last cup of coffee at my 4 p.m. meeting… I hope my client got the email I sent with questions from the reporter. It’s not like him not to respond by end of day. Hope he’s OK… what if it went to his spam folder? Need to text him... Why isn’t Garden & Gun getting back to me? I really need to call them tomorrow… again. Or email. Or find a new reporter. It’s such a great story idea… I can’t believe Max turned 3 years old last week! Time is really flying… Has it really been two years since we moved to Dallas? I wish Granite Properties hadn’t brought that cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes to celebrate our office anniversary. No, actually, I’m glad they brought the cake. It was fantastic… I really need to get up early and run. Resetting alarm clock for 6 a.m. Need to remember to write that action plan for Urban Rio tomorrow… Is tomorrow Wednesday or Thursday? Dang it, Thursday. I have to reset my alarm clock for 5 a.m. so I can run then get to my networking meeting… Why is my husband already asleep and I’m just laying here? I feel like I got nothing done on my to-do list today… Oh! I just had a great idea for Heroes Project’s fundraising campaign… must email Tiffany now so I don’t forget… Oh good, my client emailed me back… OK. Need. Sleep. Now… Need to edit the news release Tiffany sent for Promise House first thing in the morning. After my networking meeting. After my call after the meeting... Maybe I need to do it before my meeting? Resetting alarm clock for even earlier… OMG. I am seriously only going to get four hours of sleep at this rate… What if I sleep through my alarm clock…?

Welcome to my nightly world of chaos. It seems the best ideas and running through of to-do lists only happen when the head hits the pillow! And just to prove I’m not the only crazy PR person at Obsidian, here are the things that keep a few of my colleagues up at night – proving that our clients and the love of PR really do rule our brains.

Lauren:

Lingering tasks; story opportunities or various projects that didn't go as planned; having a massive to-do list; feeling like I'm behind on something; the realization on Sunday night that #MondayIsComing…

  

Mary Catherine:

Wondering if I forgot to do something; thinking about potential ideas for clients and hoping I remember them the next day; staying up late watching/reading the news to feel prepared for the next day; making mental to-do lists…

Ali:

I think the obvious answer to that question is when I feel unprepared for something at work, whether because something came up last minute or other things got in the way of an outstanding deadline. If I've made mistakes at work, those have kept me up. I think about how that mistake reflected on me and the firm in general. Also, I think about how it affects the client and their audiences.

Kim:

Is XYZ task "done"? Will my clients renew their retainers? Is my client happy with my performance? What am I missing in this event promotion? How else can I pitch client/event/news? There's so much to do; can I keep everything afloat? Am I doing enough for my clients? Did I get back to all the media that responded to my pitch? Will my contest/award nomination for my client win?

Sarah L.:

Deadlines, busy days, having to wake up early the next morning and thinking I’ll miss my alarm, waiting on a response for an important email from media, clients or co-workers…

Kelli:

Deadlines (especially recurring ones), when a client freaks out about something - even if I've rectified the situation by the end of the day. Same fear as Sarah L. - potentially missing my alarm. And this is not just on workdays! I got less sleep on the Friday night before my sister's wedding than I did before my own! My alarm was set only 10 minutes earlier than it is on a normal work day, and I was up two hours early afraid I'd missed it. 

(Editor’s note: Alarm clocks cause anxiety.)

Thomas:

Tasks I didn’t get to that day…

(Editor’s note: our male colleagues’ brains operate very differently from the female brains.)

Tiffany:

Social media editorial calendars, event postings, deadlines all at the same time, distributing international news releases, watching the nightly news (late-night news)... 

Sarah B.:

All the things mentioned in this article.

Now, what keeps you up at night?

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!

Coming Together – The Benefit and Importance of Professional Organizations

Kelli Eason

I graduated college in May of 2009. I worried, of course, about finding a job in the recession. I thought I had a pretty good shot at getting hired from a previous internship, but by the time I graduated and the market had sufficiently tanked, most of my previous supervisors were in no place to hire new communications staff. That’s where the Public Relations Society of America came in.

In college, I joined the Public Relations Student Society of America, which led to my involvement in its parent organization, PRSA. In the past five years, I have served in seven leadership positions, traveled to four national events, made too many close friends to count and, last but not least, been hired for two internships and two full-time jobs as a result of my involvement.

How did PRSA come to support my job hunt in the worst part of a recession? That’s easy – it’s all about who you know. In one of my last projects at LSU, I participated in a student campaign competition through PRSSA. During that project, I met a local PR spokesperson who hired me for my first post-graduate job just a few months later. When I was ready to move to Memphis, PRSA once again supported my search. After posting my resume to the PRSA Memphis website, I received an email from Courtney Liebenrood Ellett, who I now work with at Obsidian Public Relations.

So what if you’re not looking for a job? That’s great. PRSA or any other professional organization can still serve as a good resource. In the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to learn firsthand about Duncan-Williams’ popular Live at the Garden YouTube videos, how Anthony Siracusa transformed Memphis’ bicycling culture and the role communications plays in corporate culture from the CEO of First Horizon. The regular luncheons are a great way to get an inside look into the industry, as well as an opportunity to meet other PR pros in town.

Looking for more information on PRSA? Check out the Memphis Chapter’s website by clicking here and the Dallas Chapter by clicking here.

Happy New Year! Now what?

Crissy Lintner

Happy New Year! It’s 2013, and I’m sure we all have our New Year’s resolutions in hand and are making great progress. But does your business have its New Year’s resolutions nailed down? If not, I have a few to get you started – PR resolutions for 2013.

Be active in social media!
So, you had a couple of months last year during which you were active on Facebook and built up a significant following. Then, crickets were chirping… Things got busy and you weren’t able to keep up with it. Resolve for 2013 to get active again, because if you’re not in the conversation, you’re not relevant. Assign someone internally (or hire a PR firm) to manage your social media interactions and monitor them daily. There’s nothing worse than non-response and inactivity on a business’s social media page.

Build relationships with the news media.
It’s important to remember that behind every newspaper is a person. And building relationships with the individual reporters who write about your industry is a key to getting media coverage in the future. Be sure that you’re reaching out to introduce yourself, your expertise and your business before you have news. And when you do have news, ensure that it’s timely and newsworthy. 

No more last-minute PR campaigns!
Remember: timely and newsworthy. Haphazard PR is never effective. Take time to think through any important news items for the year and lay out on a timeline. Then, incorporate at least four to six weeks for PR efforts related to an event and up to three months for major announcements, such as expansions, acquisitions or leadership changes. This is where a great PR partner can be an advantage.

Communicate with your front-line employees to ensure message alignment.
Your customer service and point-of-sales employees do need to be “in the know” when it comes to major business decisions affecting their job focus. Is the marketing department planning a Groupon campaign? Are you running a special for social media only? What about a major acquisition of a competitor? It’s important that the people who interact with your customers daily know about these before being caught off guard by a question or comment. Or media phone call. Regular internal communication is important, and an annual ambassador training to reinforce customer service tactics and discuss overall goals for the year is always a good idea to add to the mix.

These will help get you on the road to PR success for 2013!