Finding my Voice

Why is it so hard to find a voice online? With a seemingly infinite number of blogs about public relations, marketing, social media, and the future of the web it may be a bit of an understatement to say that I'm struggling to find my angle. Who am I and what do I have to contribute to the vast world of social media? After a 4 months of posting, I have little more to show than a few boring observations about work a a list of 'things I love about PR'. No direction, no theme, no real voice. And what kills me about it all is that I love to write. Blogging should be easier than this, shouldn't it?

What I've created is an a random collection of forced thoughts about an industry that I know little about. And maybe that's the essence of the problem. I spend my days reading blogs from PR pros who speak, so naturally about the things that they know best -- the fabulous world of PR. And so when I sit down to write I try to do the same thing. But there's a problem: I know so little about the industry. I'm just so new. And what I do know is boring as all heck. So what does that leave me with? A boring blog that even I don't want to read.

But maybe I'm not alone. How long does it take an author to find their voice? Maybe it's unfair to expect a first blog to be a perfect blog. Maybe I just have to work my way through this and figure out what works for me. Write what I know. Use the gurus as a guide but not as the answer. Don't worry so much about what other people are going to say about it.

And just keep writing.

If you're reading, bear with me for a few more months. I can hear someone down deep inside me trying to talk... She just hasn't quite figured a way onto the screen.

Movie in the Park/PR Events

Last week I went to a free movie in park sponsored by Trip Advisor (which I may refer to as TA throughout this post). While I went because I figured that it would be a fun free event -- the type that I always see but never go to -- for a brief moment it got me thinking about work too. While a friend and I were talking shop, I pointed out how much of a great PR campaign it was.

I explained that while many people think of public relations as press releases and media announcements -- all the old formal stuff -- there's a whole lot more to successful PR than just making necessary announcements. PR pros give themselves reasons to make announcements. They plan events, host parties and give out awards, all to remind people what brand they're serving.

A perfect example of this is Trip Advisor's movie in the park. Trip Advisor is an online resource that (I would guess) gets most of its advertising through online resources and the existing popularity of the site. The size and high activity of their pages make TA hugely attractive to Google, meaning that they have a consistently high search rating for the exact thing that they provide to the public. Essentially, the size and quality and amount of information on their site makes makes it easy to find, which contributes to the size and quality/amount of information...

But what happens when Trip Advisor execs want to generate a 'buzz' about the site in non-online areas. There's no obvious excuse for a PR campaign -- as far as I know, the product hasn't changed and they're not coming out with anything new. But perhaps too many people are finding the site through random searches and not enough are going straight to TripAdvisor.com. They want to increase brand awareness. How can this be done?

One option is doing what Trip Advisor did: 'sponsor' a community event that appeals directly to your target audience. The easy appeal of a free summer movie in the park was a great way to draw people in and then advertise their brand without boring or 'turning off' their potential users with traditional ads. By giving their audience something for free they created a positive association with their brand so that the next time one of these people decides to look online they may just think 'what was that site?... Trip Advisor... that was a fun movie... I like that brand" Everyone likes free stuff, and if you give something away and still slip in some brand advertising, then you're well on your way to a good PR campaign.

And Trip Advisor's event was a success, I think. The overhead, I would imagine, was fairly low, the turnout was high, and people had a great time. The audience left happy with their belly's full of free pop corn and a Trip Advisor hat on their head. (A hat that they'll either wear around the city (free advertising) or throw in the corner of their house and glance at from time to time (branding) both of which will, in theory generate more hits to their site.)

Will I go directly to Trip Advisor's site the next time I'm planning a trip or getaway? I'm not sure. Will I remember their site when I'm Googleing hotel reviews? Most likely.

The Conversation Prism

Social Media. The next frontier of public relations. Er... The current frontier of public relations. Or, perhaps, the biggest part of public relations that pr pros are still trying to tackle. Brian Solis and JESS3 came up with this diagram that maps out social media: The Conversation Prism. A great resource for anyone looking to expand their social media positioning or checking how they stand.

Just when I thought I was starting to get it, this post shows me just how much I'm missing. And the big question remains: how to put it all together? If I'm on facebook and myspace 5x/day, updateing twitter every afternoon and evening, listening to pandora at work, getting google alerts first thing every morning, and using yahoo groups to organize my outside endeavors... where (and how!?) does it come together?

It would be impossible, (and futile), to utilize all of the tools available. This 'map' is a helpful visual in dividing them all up so you can not just what tools your using, but what 'color' tools you're hitting the most. My prism has a ton of blue and a smattering of red and green, but not much orange or yellow. It would seem to me that balance is the key, rather than total domination of one area but what a task finding the right colors and making sure they're all working together...

Keeping Busy When it's Slow

How important is keeping busy in an entry-level position? I love a fast paced, constantly moving, never-ending workload environment. I love being busy and knowing that the day will so filled with work that I won’t know how the clock reached 5pm when I’ve barely had time to look up. I love the responsibility of it all – feeling an integral part of the big picture because –even if the tasks are small – project completion relies on all aspects being completed.

Lately I have not been busy. There’s been no press to announce and the bulk of my large yearly project is completed. There are details to coordinate and deadlines to meet but they take up a very small part of the day leaving me with large periods of undirected time. Understanding that I need projects to keep myself sane and happy I’ve begun my own pet projects – developing our (once non-existent) social media presence, blogging, helping to restructure our website and updating our meta tags (SEO). My company allows me a great deal of freedom to develop these areas so it’s been fun exploring ways to make ourselves stronger in areas where we were recently no present.

Still, I wonder how much I need to balance this work with the small assigned tasks I’m expected to complete. Does keeping up with PR blogs and researching new social media outlets look like I’m just messing around online? Reaching out to my boss has been only moderately helpful. Instructed to enjoy the break b/c busier times would come led me to create my own projects. But at least a month later I still am dragging so what I keep wondering is, “What, exactly is expected of an entry-level PR professional with no press to occupy her time?”

A Blog Begins

The beginnings of blogging...

On Tuesday I went to a marketing seminar sponsored by PR Newswire. In addition to being a great excuse to get away from my desk for a few hours, the conference focused on online marketing -- a topic of particular interest to me. After spending about a year working at a web design studio, examining websites has become somewhat of an hobby. I can't help but pick at poorly structured sites to consider what I'd do better. More content, less flash, better layout, clearer focus. Yet I don't have a website. Not a homemade site and not even a simple do-it-yourself in a hot second site. Heck, I don't even have a blog. Though, I've considered it, things seem get in the way. What would say? How would I define myself? Who would listen? Well, this conference inspired me to dive right in. So here goes...

The world of online marketing fascinates me. How in the vast universe that is the internet, you can can influence the way people connect. Make it easier. Make it quicker. Drive the way people think about how they work online. This blog will be my thoughts on that. As a pr professional just getting her feet wet, I'll explore the excitement and tediousness of the first years of work and express my thoughts on what I'm learning, what I want to know, and where I see this ever expanding industry going in the next 5, 10, 20 years.

So welcome. To my musings, my ramblings, my speculations, and my curiosities. I'm not sure where this blog will end up, but I'm happy to say that it has finally begun.