Think Before You Post

Kelli Brignac

I gave a presentation to a group of students at McNeese State University. The topic of my presentation was “social media and your personal PR plan.” I was speaking to a room full of students and professionals representing industries like engineering, accounting and marketing, among others. My goal wasn’t to scare the students, but we all felt it was important for them to know that while social media can be wonderful for both companies and individuals, it’s important to know what you’re doing and how to use it appropriately.

Below is an outline of the presentation I gave. Have questions? Leave them in the comments.

What is PR?

The “official definition of public relations, according to the Public Relations Society of America, is that “public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” That’s true, but it’s fancy and vague, too.

Let’s start with what PR is not. It’s not what Samantha Jones does on “Sex and the City.” It’s not what you see on “Mad Men.” It’s not a last-ditch effort when something bad happens. And it’s not a bunch of spin-doctors hawking terrible products. It is strategic. It’s varied. It’s about communication. And it can work for you.

• As you read through this blog post, consider three things:
• It’s about your reputation.
• It’s about relationships.
• Brands aren’t just for companies. They’re for people, too.

Photo Courtesy from Marina Elena

What’s considered “social media?”

Social media is really anything that connects you with someone else over the Internet. Examples include Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, YouTube, message boards (i.e. Reddit), Snapchat and Google+. Of course that list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s a start.

How can your online activity affect you?

Consider the girl who got fired from her job before she even started because she tweeted something pretty inappropriate the day before. That happened. Read about it here (and know there’s some language in the story).

What about John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, who had his message board history investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission? That happened, too.

Oh, and remember Justine Sacco? Her entire life changed after one tweet sent before she got on an 11-hour flight. By the time she landed she was a worldwide trending topic, she’d been fired from her job, and she was being publicly ridiculed.

There are lots of stories like this one. The bottom line is that you should never assume something you’re posting online is anonymous, whether it’s on Twitter or a message board. 

How can social media work for you?

• Social media can be awesome, too. Just know how to use it. Make sure you pay attention to:
• Privacy – Facebook is constantly changing its settings. I’d probably make an effort to check those every month or so.
• Connections – Connect with the right people. Make sure you know them or intend to know them and that you’d be proud to be associated with them.
• Use different strategies for different platforms. I consider Instagram much more private than my Twitter page, for example, and I have fewer followers there. I use LinkedIn for business, which is different than the way I use Facebook.
• Don’t overshare. Don’t use “stream of consciousness” posts, or you might wind up publishing something you regret later.
• Engage appropriately. Remember that you can’t hide your Facebook profile picture, so why not make sure it is something you don’t mind clients, employers or co-workers seeing?

Let’s talk specifics.

Here are a few closing thoughts for maximizing your presence on various social platforms:

• On LinkedIn, optimize your headline, get recommendations, don’t be an oversharer and use the functions.
• Note: In this case, an oversharer refers to notifying your network of every little change to your profile. You can share lots of great info on the profile itself, but it will annoy your connections to get an email every time you add a word to your bio.
• Snapchat does not actually go away! It’s easier than ever to take screenshots, and if someone really wants to recover a snap, they just need to find the hidden file when they plug their phones into a computer.
• As I mentioned above, Facebook is always changing its privacy settings. The defaults are NOT that private, so I’d recommend going beyond their “quick” privacy setup.
• Once it’s out there, you can’t get it back.
• Social media is awesome. You can keep up with family or friends. Gchat has made it easier for me to do my job with co-workers in different cities. And social media is awesome for brands to put their messaging out there. Just use it responsibly.

Marathons are not for meetings.

Kelli Brignac

Recently, I traveled to Memphis to meet up with our Obsidian team and to see a few clients. But I made a huge mistake. Between traveling and scheduled meetings, I literally only had nine and a half hours of time in my week to actually get things done. Let’s just say there were a lot of late nights that week, followed by a few not-so-relaxing weekend days.

The example above is a pretty extreme case. I’m usually always stacking meetings when I travel because I want to maximize my face time with clients and with my account partners. But lately, it seems that I can’t get through my day without a meeting or five breaking it up. And, I’ve started to make a concerted effort to make the most of that meeting time while also keeping it efficient. Here are a few things I’ve learned to keep meetings on track instead of letting them turn into marathons.

1. Respect everyone’s schedules.

The shared calendar has worked wonders for me. As long as my calendar is updated and my account partners can see it, we can schedule meetings fairly easily without wasting 30 minutes trying to figure out who is available when.

When you’re working across various organizations, keep in mind that everyone has different pressures, so it’s important to schedule the meeting for as long as you expect it to last. Don’t put 30 minutes on everyone’s calendar knowing that you’d be hard-pressed to finish in less than an hour. If you can trust your calendar, it’s easier to plan your day and workload.

2. Make an agenda beforehand.

Without an agenda, your meeting may fall prey to chit-chat while you try to remember what you were supposed to talk about. And SHARE the agenda! Give everyone a chance to weigh in, at least by the day before. That way you don’t run into an unexpected topic that takes up all your meeting time.

Bonus tip: Arrange your agenda in order of importance. That way if someone has to leave the meeting early, they won’t miss the most important thing you’ll cover.

3. Stick to the agenda.

While unexpected discussion can produce wonderful things (it’s actually how Obsidian’s PR 180 Project was born) it can also waste a lot of time. By passing around the agenda beforehand (see tip No. 2), you should have a pretty complete idea of what you need to discuss.

4. Take notes.

Trust me. You won’t remember everything you talked about if you don’t jot it down while it’s happening. I like to take notes on my computer in my meeting agenda so I can refer back to them later.

5. Establish next steps for everyone. And assign deadlines to all tasks.

I work with five different people. And they work with others aside from me. It would be impossible for all of us to remember everything the other was supposed to do for our clients. So we keep to-do lists. They are wonderful for making sure we’re on time with everything.

When we have calls with our clients, I’ve found that the best way to make sure we stay on track is to send a follow-up email with next steps for everyone. That way, even if the person you met with wasn’t taking notes, he or she knows what needs to be done before you can accomplish your next steps.

6. Short regular meetings > long irregular meetings.

I’ve got six weekly meetings and even more bi-weekly or monthly meetings with my account partners, clients and managers. It might seem like a lot, but they are never long. My weekly meetings almost never last more than 30 minutes because we follow all of the above protocols when scheduling and executing them. And, there is nothing worse than letting things pile up until you really can’t do anything without talking to someone first.

7. Schedule time to work.

The calendar works both ways. Sometimes it’s important to schedule time to knock out a few projects and have no threat of being interrupted by a meeting. And there’s no shame in that!

Got any meeting efficiency tips I missed? Leave them in the comments! I’m always looking for better ways to streamline my meeting times.