Post by Deirdre Breakenridge. Deirdre is President and Executive Director of Communications at Mango! Creative Juice. A veteran in the PR industry, Deirdre leads a creative team of PR and marketing executives strategizing to gain brand awareness for their clients through creative and strategic PR campaigns. She has spoken public on PR and social media communications among other topics and has written several books on new media and PR 2.0.

The hybrid professional is not a new concept. I started to blend marketing disciplines in the late 1990s, when my first PR agency was acquired by a marketing, advertising and web/multimedia company. It was critical back then to make sure that our work, on behalf of our clients’ brands, was consistent in messaging and tone, as well as look and feel. In order to keep this consistency, PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web had to work together.  The same goes today, even more so, as social media has many departments within an organization interfacing with the public.

For me, the hybrid professional is defined in two ways.  First, the hybrid communications approach is rooted or educated in traditional communications. At the same time, it also incorporates digital and social media into the marketing mix. For example, it is still our jobs to connect with journalists no matter where they report their stories; in print, broadcast, online or on their blogs.  We’re not abandoning our media relations work with magazines, online publications, trade journals, and broadcast media, and we may still be using newsletters and HTML e-blasts to reach our constituents.

However, we’re also exploring different channels and building communities in new territories to connect with the media who have turned into bloggers, to create relationships with new influencers/citizen journalists, and to engage with customers directly. Whether it’s Facebook or Foursquare, we need to know the rules of engagement with our stakeholders in these Web communities.  The hybrid is a professional who knows how to make different connections through various channels (old and new) on behalf of the brand.  The hybrid also realizes that consumers are in the driver’s seat taking control of media, carefully selecting their media sources, creating media themselves and requiring meaningful information and engagement from their brands.

Part two of the definition includes the hybrid professional as the strategic communicator with a seat at the strategy table.  This communications professional works closely with other marketing disciplines including the digital creative group, the brand team and marketing/advertising.  I remember attending a conference about a year ago when a very smart educator questioned me about why I thought PR should be integrated with other marketing disciplines.  She told me that PR is in a class by itself.  Yes, it is and PR professionals will always stand out as strategic communicators and reputation managers.

We are the professionals who know how to build relationships with various publics, who educate and change public opinion and who know how to move markets.  PR is not simply tactical and should not be placed in a silo, or only called to the table for media relations or crisis management.  PR must interact and provide guidance for all types of communication, across a number of channels. Being a hybrid and having a strong understanding of the other areas of marketing and web, strengthens our roles; it doesn’t dilute what we do.

Social media communication is human and transparent and when it’s in the hands of the new C-Suite (the Consumer Suite) a company’s reputation could be at stake.  We need to be tapped into the social realm and how the information we retrieve, as a result of social media, will need to be shared with different departments, from marketing and PR all the way to customer service, sales, product development, IT, Human Resources, etc.  We’ve always tried to connect to with other groups, and the strategies and tactics that we’ve used in the past have helped to link us to other areas. But, social media communication and our ability to listen more closely offers us the opportunity to be even more tied to the brand’s business and functions across the organization. We’re able to reach higher-level goals and to do our jobs with more accountability.

There’s a natural progression of the PR professional turned hybrid, which takes the PR person’s professional development from traditional strategic communicator to the hybrid professional who has a secured seat at the boardroom table.  The diagram below not only illustrates the communicator who applies a blend of traditional and social media, but who also works more closely with other members of marketing and Web as well as other areas of the company (including sales, HR, IT, Legal, Customer Service, etc).  As a result, the Hybrid is the strategic communicator who guides all communication and has the ear of the CEO.

The Making of the Hybrid

Source

The hybrid professional will blend PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web, and knows that these groups must work together, so that brands can better communicate and interact with consumers. However, for as much as we discuss the hybrid approach and how PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web must work together, it’s the change in the way news and information is consumed that drives the hybrid professional movement.  I’ve said that social media pushes the integration of PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web, but if you step back, it’s really our consumers who are in the driver’s seat; it’s their shift in behavior that turns the concept of hybrid professional into our new reality.

Don't just stand there in awe of social media, come join the party!

In case you didn’t get the memo, social media has made its case and is officially part of the public relations, marketing and advertising mix.  There are no perks to sitting on the sidelines of social media.  Yet, there are still countless businesses that are leaning up against the proverbial gymnasium wall waiting for Social Media, the quarterback of the football team, to strut by and ask them for a dance. Sorry but that’s not going to happen, this isn’t Sixteen Candles (don’t ask us which characters we relate to, either—that’s for another day…).

Social media is inherently communal; the only way to connect with possible clients or business partners is to jump in. Of course, SMPR encourages its clients and others to dip your toes in.

-          Which Platforms should you pursue?

-          Do we have a planned editorial calendar of content?

-          Do we have policies and protocols about what/what not to say?

-          Do we have a crisis plan in place in the event something goes wrong or something is said which adversely affects our business?

These questions sound amazingly similar to those asked for traditional public relations outreach, no?

Waiting for Social Media is like waiting for someone to ask you to do the Funky Chicken or Electric Slide. It’s not necessarily a dance you need a partner for, but once you’re out there dancing in sync with everyone else, you understand why so many others like it and appreciate it. Plus, it can lead to some great friends (in the social media world, they call these people “connections”).

So what are you waiting for? Your first step is to decide what goal you want this “dance” to achieve for you. After that look at all of the different types of dances (social media outlets) and figure out what works best for your business. It could be a combination of several – that’s one of the great features of social media. Different platforms complement one another; if used correctly, can lead to great opportunities for your business.

It works for everyone; all you have to do is find your businesses rhythm and start dancing.  We promise, the steps aren’t has hard as they look and the folks out their dancing already are more than willing to show you the steps.

Just don’t ask us to don John Travolta’s polyester suit from Saturday Night Fever. We LOVE our clients, but – like them – we have a reputation to maintain!

Could using a PDA be bad for your corporate health?

Über-intern Whitney checks in with a very smart analysis of how technology could impede the practice of corporate communications.  Take it away, Whitney…

Since the advent of smartphones people have had a new challenge placed in front of them.  It isn’t how often you can check in on Foursquare or how fast you can look up a fact to prove a point.  In fact, it’s a challenge of etiquette, of how we as a society are choosing to balance face-to-face interactions against online relationships.

Recently Gini Dietrich covered this on her blog, Spin Sucks. After reading her post we felt compelled to chime in as well.

If you look around a coffee shop, restaurant or on the train it’s safe to say you’ll see at least a dozen people with their phones out, waiting for them to light up with an alert that something is happening in their digital world.  When people are this focused on maintaining their networks online they are often neglecting the relationship and networking opportunities right next to them—in the “real world.”

In the not so distant past, it was viewed as rude to answer a phone call during a meeting; now, it’s practically expected.  It’s hard to make a blanket statement saying that everyone should ignore their phones while conducting business, at the workplace or when out with colleagues and friends.

Still, SMPR encourages clients to think about how one’s corporate reputation—not to mention one’s personal brand—can be hindered if your PDA runs your life and not the other way around.

Remember this—people with whom you network over the Web cannot see that you’re ignoring a client when Tweeting during a meeting, but that client sure can. What will they tweet, think or say about you after their face-to-face interaction with you where you were MIA?

I have always been a fan of old-fashioned idioms and phrases; for some reason, a lot of them are about horses:

• You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.
• Don’t put the cart before the horse….
• And my personal favorite, the “carrot and stick” idiom which refers to how a carrot is used to entice and motivate a horse to do something.

In PR, we have been trained to go after carrots way too often.  There’s always a carrot dangling in front of us in the form of  new business, a media opportunity or the next big thing in social media (Twitter being a great example).

Let’s make a resolution a little early this year–let’s create our own carrots.  Ask different questions.  Look to different resources to find your leads.  Connect with new people.  Step outside your comfort zone.

You might just find there are a lot of better tasting carrots in the patch….

Why are we always chasing carrots? Isn't it time we create our own carrots?

Social media has become the good-looking girl in high school who everyone wants to call their own.

I saw an article in Advertising Age recently about how ad agencies and other marketers have created these departments dedicated to social media.  Jonah Bloom suggests that they be dismantled; perhaps another approach might be applicable.

Being that this in advertising industry publication, it makes sense that Mr. Bloom discusses the piece from that industry’s vantage point.  But let’s face it–social media is being “claimed” by all agencies, not just those which create advertising.  PR firms, direct marketers, and ad agencies alike are all claiming to do it.  It’s like social media is the hot girl in high school–everyone wants to take her to the prom so they can say, “she’s with me.”

Rather than building towers or knocking towers down, why don’t we take what’s good about the towers and mesh them with the offices and people who have already built towers within their own expertise?

What social media is doing–and where I see the greatest opportunity for its long-term future–is positioning the customer’s voice in front of everyone in a company–not just its marketing department.   The good-looking high school girl might be making the rounds, but she is not going to latch on to just one date; there is value with everyone she is connected with.

Jonah Bloom said it well in his article; consumers are running the biggest recommendation service in the world.  It’s time that we (as marketers) look for ways to collectively embrace these recommendations so that our clients can collectively benefit from them.

Blogs have become the modern-day version of the press kit. It seems like every client program these days includes at least one recommendation for a blog or video blog to help showcase a client’s story, or a place for a client’s customers to share their stories.

Unfortunately, like many press kits, they aren’t being read. Resources that went into developing blogs have gone for not. Why?

Our guess–there are way too many blogs out there; a select few actually accomplish the connectivity that clients crave.

Now might be a good time to start rethinking about how we segment and position blogs, at least in the eyes of the deliverables clients are seeking.

Our role as PR practitioners starts and ends with doing what is possible to advocate our clients’ positions. Accordingly, our role in making recommendations about blogging—should be based on “BLOGVOCACY,” a term SMPR has coined to advocate a set position or theme on a blog, staying away from personal opinions in order to move toward a measurable objective in communication.

Without question, I am an avid blog supporter. I read them as part of my content repertoire and find many of them interesting. Unfortunately, too many blogs don’t connect to customers and influencers as strongly as we would like; if the Internet had a drain, it would need to be pulled because there are simply too many blogs out there.

As we move forward with making recommendations, let’s do what we can to amplify clients’ positions; I am sure they’ll thank us for it.

We just coordinated an interview for the CEO of Flat Top Grill (www.flattopgrill.com) that is slated to run in the Chicago Sun-Times in the coming days. The crux of the story–authored by Sandra Guy–is about how restaurants in the city of Chicago are dealing with the increased tax of restaurants in Chicago, on top of the sales tax hike recently enacted by the Stroger administration.

Discussions around this story got me thinking about how the city of Chicago might wish to consider raising revenue in a downward economy. At SMPR, we advocate learning from other business models and industries to provide insight on how to do things differently. So let’s throw an idea out there, courtesy of sports stadiums, corporate branding and buzz marketing.

Here is the ultimate sponsorship initiative–rename the city of Chicago, with the assistance of the world’s foremost authority on Internet search.

Chicago + Google = ChicaGoogle

What a way to attract Olympic officials for 2016!!! Mr. Daley, Mr. Brin, Mr. Page, are you there? Has one company or group ever gone as so far to “buy” a city? Kim Basinger paid $20 million for a small town in Georgia in 1989, but not even her (ahem) star power could be as powerful as Chez Google.

Is this idea farfetched? Sure. But raising taxes for Chicago restaurants to 11+ percent seemed like a pipe dream, too–and look where we are now.

I am wondering if there are any tallies or surveys out there for the industries with the worst overall reputation–not just for their image, but for keeping their word for getting things done.  We hear a lot about used car salesmen images, but even they take a back seat to the construction industry.

Back in February, one of the windows in my house cracked due to the extreme cold weather.  The windows were made by Hurd Windows and Doors, so I needed to get a replacement. Plus, I had a leaky jamb or two, so I’m wanting to get those replaced as well. With a tagline of “Welcome to the state of Perfection,” I shouldn’t be worried, right?

Here we are in October–neither the window company nor the construction company which required a deposit to get the windows ordered has delivered on their promises.  What’s more, the construction company never updated me about the lack of progress about the windows being ordered.  Far from perfection here…

To be sure, I get it that when Hurd filed for bankruptcy and that the number of distributors had been cut, things had changed.  But when a company puts forth a message and relies on finances and other excuses as shields, they are as far from perfection as possible.

In this case, the words/expectations of both the construction company and the window company are worth nothing to me.

Give me ACTION, not WORDS. Right now, both of these company’s words are as valuable as a cracked window in the middle of winter.