Archive for March, 2010

10 Tips for PR Pros Who Want to Blog Personally

March 30th, 2010 | Posted By Stephanie Smirnov

originally posted by DeVries PR President – Stephanie Smirnov on PRMama.com

Blogging about work and personal life can be tricky. I’m not a one-woman show: I have 100+ agency colleagues, a CEO boss, lots of clients from (mostly) conservative companies and several corporate overlords at the huge global company that owns this agency. I wish I could tell you I’m uncensored but I’m not. I watch every word I write. Although there’s a disclaimer on my “About” page stating this blog doesn’t reflect the opinions of my parent company, there’s never a time when I’m blogging that I’m not seen the president of this agency. For better or worse.

I’ve made some mistakes and raised some eyebrows. There was the time I chose to expose the dark side of my working mom balancing act in a post so raw it threw my CEO into a real tizzy. He didn’t calm down until I showed him the slew of supportive comments from some of our most senior – female – clients.

There was the time I wrote a bitchy critique of a cause marketing campaign that – oops –was executed by a PR agency owned by the same corporate parent that owns DeVries. I had no idea and had I known, I wouldn’t have written it. Not smart. That little scandal was great for traffic (too bad 90% of it came from outraged colleagues at the sister agency) but I had no choice but to take the post down.

As frustrating as colleagues and clients can be, no post is worth my family’s livelihood. I’ve learned to restrain my baser blogging instincts without compromising personal integrity. Here are some tips that will hopefully help you do the same:

1. Don’t write something publically you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. I learned this from Heather “Dooce” Armstrong — who should know. She famously was fired in 2002 for writing things about colleagues she’s since said should’ve been said in person. (Or not at all.)

2. Don’t snark on your boss. Snark is awesome, I worship at its altar daily. Being snarky about your boss in a public post? Stupid.

3. Don’t snark on your clients. Unless your brain has fallen out of you head, please don’t. (See above.)

4. Don’t blog reactively. If you’re writing about something emotionally charged, wait a day before hitting “publish.”

5. Don’t make accusations. If you do, you better be damned sure you’ve got your facts straight about whatever you perceive the offense to be. If not, the blogosphere will quickly bring it to your attention. And it probably won’t be pretty.

6. Don’t malign people’s characters. Asshat behavior is fair game, personal attacks not so much.

7. Do your homework. If you’re going to critique work done by industry competitors, make sure you know exactly who’s behind the work. No good comes of attacking a sister agency’s campaign, or making fun of a ham-handed press release written by someone at another agency who just happens to be your boss’s daughter’s best friend. Not that I’d know anything about that. {sigh}

8. Go easy on the dirty laundry. Oh I know, it’s all about authenticity. I’ve been told there are junior people at DeVries who like when I blog about work frustrations or family life because it shows a side they don’t get to see in the office. But do they need to know about a family member’s gastro-intestinal challenges? Is it enriching for them to hear me bitch about my weight? Does a senior client at one of the world’s leading beauty companies need to know I haven’t shaved my legs or touched up my highlights in over a year (hypothetically speaking?) This may be blogger sacrilege but sorry, I think there is definitely such a thing as Too Much Information.

9. If you’re blogging negatively about a client’s competitor, disclose it. If you decide to slam iPhone and your client is Motorola, it’s wise to note the Motorola relationship. It doesn’t mean your gripe with Apple is unjustified, it just means you’ve got to protect yourself by calling it out. Do you really want to be the person who shows up in PR Newser accused of planting negative reviews about your client’s arch rival? That’s a bad mistake to make, even if it’s an honest one.

10. If you’re blogging positively about your client, disclose it. It’s absolutely terrific if you genuinely love the widgets made by your agency’s Client X and have been using them since you could walk. Nevertheless, you owe it to the Transparency Gods to reveal somewhere in your post if the widgets you’ve been gushing about are made by your client. Gush away, just make sure people understand there’s a material relationship there.

Stephanie Smirnov is the President of the agency and can also be found at her personal blog PRMama.com.

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Client Service: Not Business as Usual

March 30th, 2010 | Posted By Stephanie Smirnov

DeVries President Stephanie Smirnov originally posted this on her blog PRMama.com

I had a painful discussion with a client last week that will greatly impact how we work together moving forward. I held it together in the meeting but the minute I hit the street I realized with some surprise that I was about to cry. This was odd, as I don’t typically cry at or about work. Yet there I was, eyes welling, feeling blue about what had just happened and unable to get the image of my client’s lovely but unhappy face out of my mind.

I was sad, but you’re not supposed to get sad at work. Business is business. (I’ll never forget a former boss telling the weeping girl she had just fired to stop crying because “there are no tears in PR.”) Business may indeed be business and maybe there shouldn’t be tears in PR but honestly — client service is different.  You’re told from the minute you start as a baby account coordinator one of the most important skills you’ll learn as you ascend the agency ranks is how to form deep and lasting client relationships. The assumption being — the better the client relationship, the better the work output. The better the work output, the more likely the client will send new projects your way. And thus begins a cycle of organic growth which (many of us in the agency business agree) is the best kind of growth of all.

In fact, it’s how our agency grew to the size it is today. The majority of our client relationships extend back five or more years and in one case, 27 years.  Agency people from any discipline will tell you how special that kind of longevity is. Like any enduring relationship, long-standing clients stay that way because there is trust, affinity, respect, loyalty and – dare I say – affection shared among all parties.

It’s easy to say “business is business” and therefore there’s no place for emotion at the office. But how can you untangle emotion from the human values upon which we build long-term client relationships?  Trust, affinity, respect and affection are values shared between human beings, not companies.

Companies don’t hurt, human beings do.

That’s why client service is never business as usual.

Stephanie Smirnov is the President of the agency and can also be found at her personal blog PRMama.com.

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Why We Have Such a Crush on Twitter (and Not On Facebook)

March 30th, 2010 | Posted By Jessica Greco

DeVries PR’s Jess Greco – originally posted this on PRBreakfastClub. Enjoy! –

Stack of Business Cards Next to a Keyboard It’s no secret PR professionals have an unhealthy relationship with Twitter. Despite the existence of countless other social networking platforms, including Facebook (which actually has much higher numbers than Twitter), people working in PR seem to naturally gravitate towards the micro-blogging service more than anything else. We give out our Twitter handles at networking events and print them on our business cards, which is especially interesting considering LinkedIn is probably the most professional social media platform out there. However, professionalism doesn’t have everything to do with it- Twitter is as much for creating friendships as it is for forming business relationships. So why are all of us flacks such hopeless (and I mean hopeless) Twitter fiends?

1. We’re Natural Born Networkers: Networking is such a huge part of our business, whether it be on behalf of our clients and company, or for a personal desire to move up in the industry. Twitter provides the perfect platform for networking since it is meant to connect new people instead of friends and family members. Any PR professional can attest to the powerful hand Twitter has had in increasing their network, and many can even share a story of how it helped them get an interview, job, or a new contact that benefitted their client.

2. We Love to Spread Information: Who are we kidding? Flacks are suckers for a good story or piece of information. The media IS our business. Not only that, it’s in our DNA to promote and spread the story of the companies and brands we work for. Twitter arguably provides the best platform for us to do this. Sure, you can share a link on Facebook, but that piece of information will undoubtably exist in a bubble unless you accept every single friend request you receive. Think about the amount of links you see on Twitter on a daily basis- it’s becoming the biggest source of news for many of us.

3. It’s Where Our Demographic Hangs Out: Even though Justin Bieber is literally CONSTANTLY trending, it has been proven time and time again teens aren’t on Twitter yet. I have a 13-year old sister who swears she will never join. This is a great indication Twitter just isn’t completely mainstream at this time, which means most people aren’t being followed by absolutely everyone they know (parents, grandparents, etc.) like they are on Facebook. We as PR professionals have been able to turn Twitter into our little sphere where we can discuss the business without getting a “huh?” comment from that family member that just loves to tease you- for the most part at least. This probably won’t last forever, but it’s nice to have in the meantime.

Read Full Post on PRBreakfastClub

Jess Greco is an Account Coordinator for the Fabric Care team and works on two exciting brands, Downy and Bounce. She is a self-proclaimed foodie, social media enthusiast, and pop culture junkie.

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Getting One (Or Two) Jobs in 140 (280?) Characters or Less

March 24th, 2010 | Posted By Jessica Greco

I’ve been called a case study more times than I can count.  And no, it’s not because I’ve set a record for amount of time spent talking about Dunkin Donuts or because I’m the only person ever who enjoys riding up and down the Garden State Parkway.  Although I’ve probably set some sort of record for those personality traits as well. What is so interesting about me is that in an industry that does a lot of talking about using Social Media for finding a job, I have actually DONE it.  I don’t mean to sound overly proud of myself, it’s just that I still find myself becoming astounded every time I think about it.  I have used Twitter not once, but TWICE to secure full-time positions at high-profile PR agencies.

I know that May is fast approaching, and this year we’ve seen an explosion of incredibly smart PR students who have made it their job to get as involved in Social Media as possible.  Their ambition and dedication has truly impressed me.  However, they will be graduating into an economy that still hasn’t fully gotten back on its feet (but one that is hopefully better than the one I graduated into last year!).  I wanted to write this post as a way to show all the PR job-seekers that it IS possible to “get a job in 140 characters or less”, as my friend
Stina likes to say.  In fact, straying from the traditional means of getting a job might be your best bet.

When I graduated in May without any position or prospects, I was fully prepared to spend my summer looking for a job.  I brushed up my resume, checked Mediabistro and Talent Zoo daily, set up Craigslist feeds in my Google Reader, and asked my friends to pass along anything that they thought might fit.  I stayed relatively quiet about my situation online, not wanting to seem desperate or whiny.  I went on a number of interviews, but after the fourth time that I met with someone for a position that I wasn’t all that interested in and never heard back, I decided something needed to change.  Armed with fresh determination, I overhauled my online profiles and started spending more of my time on Twitter interacting and engaging with other PR professionals instead of simply broadcasting.  In fact, it was around this time that I started chatting with the now-members of PR Breakfast Club, the blog I write for on a regular basis.  This isn’t to say that I went from knowing zero PR Tweeties to a whole bunch- I simply started showing them what I knew about the industry more than I had been.  I also decided to make it fully known that I was looking for a full-time job and had been looking for a long time.

It wasn’t TOO long after I tweeted my job frustrations that my then-acquaintance (and now awesome friend) Elliot reached out to me and let me know that his agency was hiring and he’d be happy to pass along my resume.  Elliot and I didn’t know each other very well, but he followed me on Twitter and had seen that I was looking for a job.  I was the first person that he thought of.  Two weeks after he reached out to me via DM, I had my first full-time agency job!  It was an awesome, and very unexpected, feeling.  As an added bonus to my unique good fortune, the story of how I got the job made me one of the company’s resident social media geeks.

When it came time for me to find something new, I decided it would be a good idea to tap my loyal Twitter network once again.  I told a few of my closest PR friends that I was looking, just in case they had any connections or opportunities for me.  At some point, I decided to send my resume to the fantastic Stephanie Smirnov, President of DeVries PR.  I had followed her on Twitter for a while and knew that she was a big fan of PR Breakfast Club, which had turned into a blog by then.  DeVries was like a dream agency for me- fantastic clients and reputation, and the best part was that their PRESIDENT tweeted and was actually GOOD at it. Plus, I also followed and interacted with a number of very social media-savvy girls that worked there.  I actually ended up interviewing with a number of them, which was a very interesting, yet comforting experience.  When I was offered the position, I couldn’t believe it.  I had gotten the job I had been waiting for, and I owed it all to Twitter (well, maybe not ALL)!

So, my advice to all the PR students out there who are feeling a little lost and scared, is: Be open to everything and don’t close yourself off to ANYTHING!  Throw yourself into Social Media and meet as many new people as you can.  Constantly show your network of people how you can think and what you can do.  It just might land you a job (or two)! :)

Jess Greco is an Account Coordinator for the Fabric Care team and works on two exciting brands, Downy and Bounce. She is a self-proclaimed foodie, social media enthusiast, and pop culture junkie.

- Jess Greco

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Keeping Customers Loyal Via Social Media

March 18th, 2010 | Posted By Jessica Greco

This post was originally written by DeVries PR’s own Jess Greco on PRBreakfastClub. Enjoy!

Little Girl Eating a Donut

 It’s no big secret that I am a bigger Dunkin’ Donuts fan than most.  This weekend, in the wake of New Jersey’s monster hurricane, I traveled to three different Dunkin’s just to get hash browns and an iced coffee, and then I went to a fourth one later that night.  Today I somehow found myself in a Starbucks and asked for a medium iced coffee three times before I realized I was supposed to say Grande.  Dunkin’ is sort of always on my brain.

And I’m definitely not the only one.  Last month, Dunkin’ Donuts was named number one in customer loyalty (in the coffee category) for the fourth straight year, which shows just how many people in the United States have made stopping at the infamous chain part of their daily routine.  Of course the question that a study like this raises is, what is it that Dunkin’ Donuts does that inspires such utter devotion among their consumers? 

I won’t be so bold as to claim that their activities in Social Media is the sole answer to this question (I mean have you ever had their Coconut Iced Coffee? It’s seriously delicious). However, I do think that they do a particularly fantastic job of taking advantage of all that social media has to offer and using it to reach their customers.  They were one of the first brands that I really started actively following on Twitter and Facebook and I have truly enjoyed keeping up with all of the things that they do.

Aside from their “Create Dunkin’s Next Donut” contest, Dunkin’ doesn’t do a ton of large-scale, media attracting social media initiatives.  It’s the small things that they truly excel at.  They know how to keep consumers engaged and interested on a daily basis and they have a way of making you feel like you’re special, even as just one of their millions of consumers.  They may not make a huge splash by doing ridiculous things that no one has ever heard of, but I would argue that it really doesn’t matter.  By making the consumer the focus of their brand (which goes along perfectly with their “America Runs on Dunkin’” slogan) instead of the brand itself, Dunkin Donuts has ensured that they will stay loyal.

The brand’s Twitter account is a great model for companies looking to try their hand at the service….

Read entire post on PRBreakfastClub

Jess Greco is an Account Coordinator for the Fabric Care team and works on two exciting brands, Downy and Bounce. She is a self-proclaimed foodie, social media enthusiast, and pop culture junkie.

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Blogging Behind the Scenes: Stephanie Smirnov strikes perfect blogging balance

March 2nd, 2010 | Posted By Stephanie Smirnov


This is a interview from Product Pasha with DeVries PR President Stephanie Smirnov. Enjoy!

For a few months now, we have been talking to bloggers, publishers and public relations agents alike about what really goes on in the world of blogging. Recently, I had a chance to ask Stephanie Smirnov, president of DeVries Public Relations, some questions on the topic. As the leader of DeVries’ Strategy and Innovation Group, as well as the force behind overall strategic counsel and creative process, Stephanie has particular expertise in the areas of beauty, wellness and woman-to-woman communications. Stephanie is on the Board of Governors of Cosmetic Executive Women, the beauty industry’s leading trade organization.

Stephanie is also the voice behind PR Mama, a blog dedicated to her personal (and sometimes) professional musings. These often include her experiences as a mom of a 6 year-old, as a wife of Russian ballroom dancer, and as a nostalgic child of the ’70s. Her latest post describes her experience as a moderator of “Bloggers, Brands and the New Publishing Paradigm” at Mom 2.0 Summit.

Q: Can you describe the most important aspect of public relations?

Stephanie: An ability to communicate in a way that clarifies, persuades and inspires (clients and influencers alike.)

Q: What is the most difficult part of your job?

Stephanie: Prioritizing and focusing. I have responsibilities to my agency colleagues and clients, am an avid blogger and a wife and mom. Striking the right balance so none of those things gets neglected is a constant challenge.

Q: How do you choose the bloggers to whom you pitch your clients’ products? In other words, what qualities do you look for in a blog/blogger?

Stephanie: It depends on the initiative. We like to say at DVPR that it’s about quality as well as quantity. We’re looking for bloggers with traffic and influence, of course; equally as important is how they engage with brands, how open to and creative they are about forging marketing partnerships and going beyond product reviews or sidebar advertising.

Q: What are the benefits of working with bloggers as opposed to other media outlets? Do you expect different things from bloggers than from magazine editors?

Read the entire interview on Product Pasha

Stephanie Smirnov is the President of the agency and can also be found at her personal blog PRMama.com.

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