Celebrity Endorsement! :)

Kind words from recent client, Kara Dioguardi, the 4th judge on American Idol. Thanks Kara! :)

9 Questions For Public Relations and Public Presence Expert Bronwyn Saglimbeni

A fun Q&A profile piece from Jim Nichols in iMedia... enjoy!!

9 Questions For Public Relations and Public Presence Expert Bronwyn Saglimbeni

Starjacking...

My friend and former client, Jim Nichols has a great iMedia blog posting today called "Starjacking and the Service or Else Economy."  This article is a great read not only because I'm quoted ;) but because Jim's writing style is SUCH fun, and the message is SO true.

Enjoy.

The Power of Our PresenceTM — A Public Speaking Workshop for Women

Greetings all!

Partnering with the ultimate presentation guru, Kristine Schaefer, I am THRILLED to announce an upcoming workshop for women.   Read on!!

If you are looking for a breakthrough in public speaking, or presentation of self, this is your workshop.  Designed by women for women, we help you discover the power your presence can bring.  Using techniques developed from years of coaching top business executives, Kristine Schaefer and Bronwyn Saglimbeni offer women a place to develop the skills most relevant to them: the physical and vocal presence to powerfully engage the audience.

Join us if you are looking to:

• “Own the room” in business, public speaking engagements, volunteer activities or social gatherings.
• Be a more compelling, persuasive public speaker, or presenter
• Overcome the habits that stand in the way of your credibility—the “ah’s”, the “um’s”, the “you know?”s

When:  10:00 am – 6:00 pm Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Where:  Menlo Park, CA

Cost: Register before February 15 - $174; After February 15, $250

RSVP:

• Bronwyn Saglimbeni bronwyn@bronwyncommunications.com
• Kristine Schaefer kristine@lomacommunications.com

 

Kristine Schaefer, Biography

Kristine Schaefer, principal of Loma Communications, is an executive communications coach who works with leaders around the world helping them expertly convey their vision and strategies and win competitive advantage for their companies. 

Throughout her career, Kristine worked with over 100 companies in U.S., Europe, the U.K. and Asia; including Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Wyeth, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi Aventis, Stanford University, AMD, Autodesk, Comcast, and Mattel.  Her clients have appeared on Good Morning America, Prime Time, CNN, CNBC, NBC Nightly News, Fox News, and top business and mass market publications in major international markets. 

In her coaching sessions and training workshops, Kristine creates an encouraging and safe environment where clients feel free to take risks, break unproductive patterns and make bolder and better choices in their leadership and communications abilities.

Prior to launching her coaching career in 1999, Kristine was a vice president at The Weber Group, now Weber Shandwick, a global communications firm, where she was a senior communications counselor to an $8 billion division of IBM; to high-tech start-ups; and to top trade and government officials in Asia.

In addition to coaching, Kristine serves as a strategic advisor to The Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment, a non-profit dedicated to ending poverty through the creation of women-owned micro-enterprises.  

Bronwyn Saglimbeni

For nearly 15 years, Bronwyn has worked with clients to improve their public speaking and media relations skills, challenging them to bring out more of themselves in their communications.  Bronwyn is known for her playful, irreverent approach to coaching, combined with her knack for delivering “tough love” in a way that allows executives to achieve true breakthroughs.  In her work in public relations and communications coaching, Bronwyn encourages clients to be authentic, engaging and approachable, which has garnered coverage in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, CNBC and others; and successful speaking engagements at Ad:Tech, AAAAs, Under the Radar, Demo, and other top industry events.

Bronwyn develops global media strategies, thought leadership and speaking programs, crisis communication strategies, and conducts media training as well as corporate positioning workshops.  Her corporate communications career spans both business to business and business to consumer technology companies. 

Bronwyn began her career in international relations and protocol consulting.  While in the Office of Protocol for Mayors Frank Jordan and Willie Brown, Bronwyn was involved in political advance work, media relations, and event planning on behalf of the City and County of San Francisco. 

From there, Bronwyn joined a private international relations consulting firm, Protocol International, where she developed successful public affairs and international relations programs for clients including the Norwegian Consulate, the Panamanian Consulate and the South African Foreign Ministry, as well as Oracle Corporation. 

The Way We Write Needs to Change. Now.

As promised, in my list of “things that have me all worked up,” here is Thing #2: Let’s change how we write as an industry.

As I was mulling this over, looking for ideas, inspiration, etc, the heavens opened and delivered me this from Bad Pitch, quoting Saul Hansell at the NYTimes. I love this example because a) we’ve all pitched Saul at one time or another and b) we are all guilty of this kind of writing at one time or another.)

***
"My biggest problem with pitches is that at least half the ones I get, I can't understand what the company does or what the pitch is about. Often, the pitch is so wound up trying to define some sort of cute trend the company fits into that they don't actually give the who-what-where-when. And too many pitches use such obscure jargon, that they are impenetrable.

Allow me to vent on this for one second, with the first paragraph of a pitch I got yesterday:

"Hope you're well. I'd like to introduce you to xxxx, a new, place-based out-of-home digital network that delivers relevant, localized media within the rhythm of consumers' daily rituals, like afternoon coffee or sandwiches at lunch."
It turns out that the company puts video billboards in delis. My hope is that if people realize a reporter is much more likely to search for "video billboard" than "place-based out-of-home digital network" this may be an incentive for PR people to brush up on their English a bit."
***

Yes, my brother.

Whenever I try to root out a bad habit, I go into a Zen-like observation mode. So let’s think about this… why do we write this way? Sometimes we are meeting our clients’ need to be appear larger than life. In other cases, it’s the PR people who are to blame, having been trained to take a sow’s ear and make a Chanel purse out of it. Either way, it’s not working, and certainly not impressing the likes of Saul Hansell. Here’s how we can improve:

1. Channel the Greats. Need some examples of clear, compelling, energizing writing? Look no further than Seth Godin, Michael Pollan or Thomas Friedman. Notice that they still manage to inspire us and pique our curiosity without adding baroque adornment to every sentence. Here’s a trick I like to use: Next time you are about to dive into a press release or speaking abstract, dive FIRST into a Seth Godin posting, and write from his voice for a paragraph or two. It may not end up being the final product, but it’s a great exercise for getting into a good place for good writing.

2. Bring Your Clients Along for the Ride. Let’s start talking to our clients about this revolution in writing. We can show them Saul’s comments, and point to examples of good/bad writing. Let’s especially commit to doing this if we are in the midst of a messaging or positioning initiative. These workshops are often the worst offenders. Need an example?. Let’s have our clients playfully police us on our ability to be succinct, clear and compelling. They’ll love it.

3. Practice in Email. The next time we write an email, let’s go back and boil it down. Let’s see if we can get our respective messages to three sentences. Maybe something like a) information b) what to do as a result of having this info and c) when we need it by. If it feels curt and unfriendly, add personality to it, but let’s not sacrifice simplicity.

4. Go Back to the Basics. Here is a link to a good blog posting about writing clearly. None of this should be news to any of us, but it’s a good reminder. Especially the part about the active vs. passive voice.

5. Spread the Gospel. Let’s talk to each other about this and share examples of what’s working.

What do you think?

What Twitter is Doing to Communications as a Whole

Morning! Great post from WebWorkerDaily : How Twitter is a Communications Game Changer

Getting Exceptional: How Twitter Will Change Your World

As I mentioned in my last post, things are getting ugly out there. The PR people who will be left standing in this economy are the exceptional. Along these lines, I’m offering a few (5 to be exact) ideas about how we can get exceptional here and now.

Without further ado, here is Thing #1:
How Twitter Can Change your World (Or at least help you understand the reporters and analysts you watch).

Full disclosure: At first, I could not grasp the relevance of Twitter. I wondered what it said about our collective attention spans that “micropublishing” was taking off. But, like J-Lo and Scientology, I am going public with my love. As a reward for reading this entire post, I shall link to a lists of reporters who Twitter so you can begin following them with great devotion and interest.

So why am I so into Twitter? Because I have a MUCH better sense of what’s on the minds of the analysts and press people I follow. It’s really that simple. Often, they’ll post info on stories they’re working on, pet peeves, travel schedules (crucial info if you’re pitching something timely), etc. Also, it just gives you a peak into their personalities. This ain’t something you’d find on MediaMap, that’s for sure. Sometimes you’ll find that you really dig a given reporter. They might be the person you hope to grab a beer with someday. Other times you’ll find that the arrogance factor makes you want to pull your eyelashes out one by one. Either way, at least you’ll know who you’re dealing with at a level you couldn’t hope to experience without a face to face encounter.

Also, Twitter represents a new exposure for BAD PR people. Brian Morrissey recently tweeted about a PR person who, when unsatisfied with how a story was going, actually went above his head to his BOSS to complain.

My point here is that not only can reporters blog about bad PR moves, they can publicly shame them in new ways as well. Granted, not all press people use Twitter. But for those that do, if you take the time to enter their world via Twitter, it’ll make you a lot smarter about how and what to pitch. Shout outs to Peter Shankman for waking me up to this reality.

A few safety tips:
• Avoid SHS: Some reporters/analysts “tweet” more often than others. Select the “turn device alarm off” option as you choose to “follow” them. That way, you won’t get notified every time someone posts something new. If you don’t, you may experience SHS (Sudden Hate Syndrome) as the volume of Twitterings can be alarming at first(I know they’re called Tweets, but I can’t help it… I like the way “twitterings” sounds… vaguely like something Mary Poppins might say. “Jane and Michael – enough of your twitterings. Spit, spot.”). I only receive updates for the folks I follow very closely, or for those who are particularly amusing.

• Don’t Be a Stalker: Sometimes the tweets can share some of the daily details of the person’s life. For example, you may be following a reporter who mentions that she’s expecting, and is fighting nausea on a daily basis. Be careful referencing this kind of thing in your conversations with her. It’s a thin line between being attentive to their needs as reporters and being a stalker. Even though they offered the info, it’s still a little weird to mention it. Such is the strange balance we all walk with privacy and social media.

• Try it, you might like it: Give it a shot. Take the plunge, and answer that profoundly rich question “What are you doing?”

Congrats! You made it to the end of this posting. Here is a link I found that lists which reporters use Twitter.

• Courtesy of the folks at My Creative Team: https://twitteringjournalists.pbwiki.com/Media%20People%20Using%20Twitter

When the Going Gets Tough – the Tough Get Exceptional

As Brian Morrissey pointed out in his interview with the Bad Pitch blog, he supposed there were something like 75 PR people for every single reporter. Whether or not it’s an accurate statistic, the message is loud and clear – only the exceptional will survive the next 36 months in the PR industry.

Over the next week or two, I'm going to be talking about 5 things (in no particular order) that have me all worked up. As always, comments, ideas and rants are encouraged.

Thing #1) How Twitter can change your world. Or at least help you understand the reporters and analysts you watch.

Thing #2) The way we write needs to change. Now.

Thing #3) Why we should each be reading for an hour before even thinking of opening Outlook. (Sound obvious? When is the last time you actually spent time reading for a solid hour before responding to email?)

Thing #4) Tips for educating clients on the new metrics for success in PR

Thing #5) Why giving tough love to your spokespeople has never been more important.
Anything have you all worked up?

RIP Vista

This warms the cockles of my heart.

Microsoft Introduces Windows 7, Ending Vista Brand

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/technology/business-computing/29soft.html

An Open Letter to Conference Planners

Dear Conference Planners (specifically those in charge of content):

You have a tough gig. You walk a delicate balance between informing and entertaining. But I want to give you some tough love. 99.9% of conference content is BORING. I don’t care what industry we’re talking about. It just is, and you know it. You could almost just label your sessions: “Five forty-something white guys talk about important stuff that will bore you to death.” Here are 5 ideas for sexing up your format.

1) Pick bombastic panelists: Yes, it is key to have a good pedigree, but also consider bringing on someone who will either a) piss people off or b) inspire people. Before you say “but how do we know who’s bombastic?!?” Come on. You meet people every day in your industry. You know who is engaging to talk to and who isn’t. I saw a panel recently where one of the panelists was just a mouthy, overbearing guy who delivered hilarious sound bites, one after another. People didn’t like him, but for that ONE session during a 3 day conference, no one was multitasking. People were engaged. And he up-leveled the game of the other panelists.

2) Choose unexpected panel topics or formats: Here’s the thing, talking about “what’s next” in the industry is safe. Yeah, people will attend. But they won’t pay attention. Instead of having experts up on the panel, have users up on the panel. Ask them what they want. And let the so called “experts” react, and explain why they don’t offer this stuff, or what needs to be done to meet these needs. Wanna know what’s next? Don’t ask the folks on the delivery side. As the users. Period. Make it mildly uncomfortable. Put people on the spot. Get ‘em sweating. Guaranteed the laptops will close and eyes will be active and bright.

3) Put audience members on the spot: Have panelists throw out questions to the crowd, and force them to be involved and engaged. You better believe if a mic is being passed around actively, people will be paying close attention. “What if they pick me!? I better have something to say!!”

4) Use props: Hand out a small red signs (think auctions) to the audience that say “I call bullshit” and encourage audience members to raise their signs whenever they disagree. Have fun with it… get people laughing at themselves at the industry.

5) Leverage technology: Have attendees text messages about what would be more useful, interesting to talk about as the panel is happening, or at least post panel to get feedback to improve it for next time. Kudos to AlwaysOn for streaming a live chat of people watching/commenting on the panels live. It is a bold move, especially because from time to time, the chats get more interesting than the panels themselves. Nice work.

I know this is hard. No one gets fired for status quo. But have some fun with it… it always feels good to shake things up.

All my best,
Your friendly neighborhood conference attendee