VerveCast

If you’re in the product delivery business, it’s probably a good rule of thumb to actually deliver your product when it’s ordered. Sounds simple. But have you heard about the giant 1-800-Flowers Valentine’s Day 2012 ordeal? What a disaster. Apparently, this February 14, the company failed to deliver hundreds of orders. I can only imagine how that affected households across the country.

As you’d expect, the flowerless customers took to social media with their rants. The company’s Facebook page was bombarded with posts from unhappy customers saying things like, “TERRIBLE TERRIBLE SERVICE USE ANY OTHER COMPANY/SITE,” and “Thanks for deliverying (sic) my girlfriends flowers 2 days late. Thanks for only sending 9 out of the 12 roses and thanks for sending 2 dead flowers. Thanks for ruining Valentines Day.” Its Twitter account is seeing similar messages.

After reading the messages, I’m actually starting to feel sorry for the customer service reps (more likely social media/PR peeps) over there who are tasked with responding to every negative comment and attempting to fix the orders. From what I can see, it looks like they are actually doing a pretty good job of staying on top of the responses. (I keep picturing the red-eyed employees in one huge room, hovering over their computers, eating doughnuts, and pulling out their hair.)

So, what happened? Maybe this was a computer glitch? Maybe it was a staffing issue? Who knows? The point is… we should know! 1-800-Flowers should have come out with a public statement as soon as they discovered the problem. Some sort of explanation should have been set forth by a trained company spokesperson (read: PR person ghostwriting for company spokesperson). Although explaining the situation probably wouldn’t have completely repaired the dissatisfaction with the missing orders, it would have at least helped the public to understand how something like this occurred and, more importantly, what safeguards are now in place to ensure it will never happen again.

Looking for the proper way to write “regifting?” Wondering if “Christmastime” is one word or two? AP to the rescue! Earlier this week it put out a special Holiday Style Guide informing media—and those of us pitching media—how to talk about the holidays (always lowercase, by the way). Here are just a few words/phrases from the list.

Champagne

Capitalize sparkling wine from the French region uncorked to celebrate New Year’s.

Christmastime

One word.

hallelujah

Lowercase the biblical praise to God, but capitalize in composition titles: Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus.

Kriss Kringle

Not Kris. Derived from the German word, Christkindl, or baby Jesus.

Nativity scene

Only the first word is capitalized.

regifting

Passing along an unwanted present to someone else.

(My personal favorite.)

A wise person once told me, “use your power for good”. There is always someone who is less fortunate than you and always someone who could use your help.

A new project by eBay is helping celebrities do exactly that. The auction site has long been known for being the place to go to get celebrity paraphernalia. Now, eBay Celebrity is a section on the site to get your favorite pieces from the stars and the proceeds all go to the celebrity’s favorite charity instead of some collectors pocket. Things such as a meet and greet and charity dinner with Brad Pitt or a leather jacket from Sienna Miller can all be found in this charity arena. Instead of bidding on something that you are unsure is authentic, you can be guaranteed that it’s coming straight from your celebrity idol.

Other than the obvious benefit to the charities, this also was a great move on eBay’s part to better their business and a great move for the celebrities so that they can control what is being auctioned under their name. A fake on the Internet isn’t as easy to spot as it is in real life. The celebrities can now guarantee that the piece that is representing them is authentic and will satisfy their fans. eBay has seen a huge improvement in searches that include celebrity names. Justin Bieber has seen a 107% increase in searches on eBay. Because eBay is seeing increase in collateral sales, they are not taking any percentage from the celebrity auction house.

It’s great to see a win (celebrity), win (eBay), win (fan) come out of such a great project!

Time and time again clients approach me with “PR ideas” that I’m 99.9% sure won’t attract any media attention. Don’t get me wrong… I certainly appreciate their enthusiasm for sharing information with me. Typically, the more info I get from clients, the better. However, when they expect a magazine feature from something like a “new-and-improved” product with one minor tweak, we’re in trouble. As a general rule, the following are three basic necessities that make up a good PR pitch.

1)      Timely and/or unique ideas – Why is your idea newsworthy? Why does the media care about your message? Your pitch needs to stand out from the clutter. Re-hashing old news is not going to cut it.

2)     Expert sources – We can’t pitch a cooking segment to a broadcast TV station without a chef. Make sure your interview subject is lined up (and media trained) before contacting the media.

3)    Visuals, visuals, visuals – If you’re pitching to a magazine, make sure you have a great collection of relevant photos to share with the pub. If you’re pitching to a TV news morning show, think about what your client will be doing on camera or how you can supplement the interview with something interesting to look at.

Keep in mind, this post refers to traditional PR. Social media is an entirely separate beast. Which brings up another great point… PR ideas and social media ideas are two different things. Yes, one idea can sometimes span both disciplines, but oftentimes, topics addressed through social media outlets are completely inappropriate for pitching to traditional media sources.

As my second season of vegetable gardening nears its end, I’ve been reflecting on my experience. And I have to admit, this year was a little disheartening. Most of my tomatoes didn’t grow, and the ones that did stayed green. My jalapenos started to sprout their fruit, but they never developed into an actual pepper shape. (What is that about?) If it weren’t for my bountiful zucchini, my vegetable crop would have been a bust.

Anyway, after reading a few “PR is like ____” articles this week, I’ve been inspired to write my own. Four Ways PR is Like Gardening:

• Planting Seeds – PR professionals send out a lot of pitches and many of them don’t develop into anything. But if you don’t plant the seeds, there’s no chance of anything sprouting.
• Nurturing Sprouts – When your seeds start to grow, you need to nurture them. Cultivate relationships with your media contacts and check in on developing stories.
• Fighting Pests – “Pests” in the PR world are easy to come by. From unresponsive clients to looming deadlines, there are numerous obstacles to overcome to achieve the final product.
• Harvesting Crops ­– Getting to your fully developed product takes a lot of effort. But when you’re successful, there’s no better gratification than seeing your hard work pay off, and presenting a great media placement to your client.  

Both gardening and PR campaigns have their ups and downs, but the end product is worth the effort. You can bet I’ll be back in the garden come spring.