Public Relations Princess

No Public Relations Princess Show on July 29

Hi everyone. I'm writing this post from beautiful, sunny and HOT Tucson, Arizona. There won't be a Public Relations Princess show today on Macs World Live. I'm speaking at the NIATx/SAAS conference tomorrow, to a group of substance abuse prevention and treatment professionals.

They're just like the rest of us...curious about social media and wondering how they can deploy social media strategies. After all, even though most are nonprofits, these facilities are businesses at the end of the day. And all of the facilities should be curious what their customers are saying, at the very least.

Here's a view off my eighth floor balcony of the JW Starpass Marriott in Tucson. This is just HALF of the hotel! The conference center is the building the furthest in the distance. It is a gorgeous faciltity. With a Hashimi spa, two pools, two fitness centers, hiking and biking trails, you never run out of things to do. There is even a "lazy river" that you can float around and a water slide. Yesterday, my hubby Jim and I floated for a couple of hours and enjoyed the company of my dear friend Julie Shepard, one of the conference organizers.

Last night, we visited the historic "El Charro" restaurant in downtown Tucson. The chimichanga was voted one of the "50 best plates" by USA Today. Little did I know when I ordered it that it covers two zip codes! OMG that was the biggest dinner I have ever seen. And I only ate about five bites before giving up!

Taking a break from working on my presentation to blog, but better get back to work. There is a tequila toast every night at 5:30 in the lounge downstairs. The Legend of "Arriba Abajo" is a little story that is told and retold here and ends with a shot of a different kind of tequila every night. It's Jim's favorite drink of all time, so that's right up his alley. So that will be my dinner time break.

Later Friday we plan to visit a nearby observatory, should be a good time.

Goldman Sachs Flushing Its Store of Goodwill Down the Toilet

It is not often that you run into a company that has been around since 1869. This company has former officers that run government and have the president's attention. This company has tirelessly given money to causes as diverse as climate change to developing female leaders.

So why on earth, I ask you, would Goldman Sachs wad up its store of goodwill, built up over generations on the backs of its founders, and flush it down the toilet?

Goldman Sachs is planning to pay its employees HUGE bonuses, just weeks after saying it will repay the government its stimulus loan. This would technically free the firm from the limitations set by the government on bonuses. But why, at this time when the country is experiencing the worst recession in a quarter of a century, would Goldman snub its nose at the world and choose to be the poster child for Wall Street excess?

There are even conspiracy theorists out there who take it one step further. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine wrote a scathing article just this month about Goldman's role in all of the major financial bubbles of the last few decades (Internet, housing and commodities) and focuses on Goldman's role in these debacles. I love Matt's quote in this video: "Basically, Goldman has found a way to sell crap, slap a Triple A rating on it, and sell it to a bunch of big institutional investors."

There is a time in every company that management has to sit down and intropectively decide what it wants its company's image to be. Goldman Sachs, your time is now. I hope you straighten up and fly right.

Diana Deibler, "Queen of Execution" My Guest Today on Public Relations Princess

Des Moines Iowa has the most interesting people. Diana Deibler is one of the best.

Today on my internet radio show, Public Relations Princess, Diana and I will be talking about her business, Deibler and Company, and what motivates her to excellence. Diana has more than 25 years of experience in marketing, communications and strategic planning. She has worked in TV news, in an agency environment and the corporate world and now owns her own business.

Among Diana's many strengths is the power to quickly wrap her head around problems and work execute a plan in a matter of hours, rather than months! Diana's "Guiding Principles" are inspiring not only for the plain common sense the principles represent, but also that Diana uses these principles on a daily basis to treat clients and business partners with the respect they deserve. Diana proudly displays these principles on her Web site and I urge everyone reading this post to read the prinicples as well. You will be glad you did.

Diana will give listeners some very practical tips on how to be a better communicator, some of the drivers of stress in ad agencies, and how she stays on task during the day.

So tune in at 4:00 p.m. CDT to listen to our discussion. You can listen at Mac's World Live. I'll be on Twitter during the show, so be sure to Tweet in your comments and questions, @clairecelsi

Amazon Needs Common Sense Crisis Management, Not Reactionary Panic

George Orwell is playing with us.

Amazon customers who purchased the e-book "1984" realized this past weekend that the book had been remotely deleted from their devices.

In another completely boneheaded move, Amazon, after realizing it did not have the rights to sell the book to its Kindle crowd, deleted the book without informing customers the reason for the deletion. Customers received the same generic email from Amazon as if they had initiated the refund themselves.

Now let's get the story straight. A third-party vendor was the one selling the book "Nineteen Eighty-Four" on Amazon. So, follow me now, shouldn't Amazon have worked on a resolution with the third-party vendor instead of inconveniencing and pissing off its customers? That would make sense, but no, in another reactionary move, Amazon redacted the book with no explanation.

Can you tell that Amazon has no crisis communications plan? To me, it's as obvious as a goiter. It's the communication team's job to think of these crisis situations ahead of time and devise a plan to deal with and communicate out to customers the course of action being taken.

The lack of a cohesive crisis communications plan is seriously effecting Amazon's ability to be taken seriously in the brave new world of digital media. Now, a class-action lawsuit is brewing. And Amazon is wimping out on its own flawed strategy, no doubt posed by some fresh-faced attorney in Amazon's legal department. Note to Amazon: Your communicators must be available at all times to deal with these crises. If you go to the Hamptons for the weekend, someone must be left in charge. Twitter does not take the weekend off.

Target Blinks on Return Policy - Ever So Slightly

  Target has slightly amended its inflexible return policy by doubling the amount that you can return items, twice per year, without a receipt. The new limit is $70. This is a step in the right direction, yet still puts your most loyal customer groups in a bad spot. I'm talking about newly married couples, Moms and moms-to-be, and out of town relatives. They all will still be left (literally) holding the bag when trying to return higher-priced items like X-boxs, strollers and furniture. Why would you seek to alienate these nice folks?

And for goodness sakes, Target...you could have announced this news on a blog instead of just your boring corporate newsroom. Get with the times.

P.S. People often ask me if I hate Target. No! I love Target. I just want it to match the brand image it has built up over all these years and be nice to people. I shop at Target all the time.

A "Store of Goodwill" for Southwest Airlines

July 14, 2009, on a Southwest Airlines jet on route from Nashville to Baltimore, passengers were horrified to see a football-sized opening appear in the passenger cabin. Oxygen masks fell from the ceiling and the cabin lost pressure.

As I watched the news break on CNN, I logged on to Twitter to watch the trending news to see when Twitter would start going nuts, talking about Southwest's safety record and seeing passengers comment as well.

Even the breaking news was strange. There was an item, about a minute long, about the breach and the fact that the plane had passed a thorough skin inspection in January. There was mention that Southwest had paid a seven million dollar fine in March for delaying inspections.

Where was the social media outrage? Why weren't there any follow-up stories in the mainstream media?

Southwest Airlines is a case study in how PROACTIVE public relations and social media serve as a buffer from a public backlash when accidents or incidents occur. A company must have a "store of goodwill" already in the bank. Southwest, it's employees and its loyal customers all work together to tell great stories about Southwest. From its friendly blog, to its singing flight attendants, to its cheeky ads, to its Twitter updates, Southwest spends money up front to build its reputation and protect its image.

When something bad happens to your company, and it's just a matter of time before it does, what's in YOUR store of goodwill?

Qwest's Clueless Marketing

Oh boy! Imagine my anticipation when I opened my latest piece of mail from Qwest. It was congratulating me on my anniversary! "congratulations on the anniversary of your big move." Wow, I thought. How sweet! They really care about me.

But then I got to thinking...What anniversary? What big move?

I got a new wireless modem last year about this time. I switched my home phone to a voice-mail only account and then subsequently terminated that account later. I've lived here for eight years now. Didn't move. Before that, I'd had the same phone number for 18 years. Business line? Nope. Using my cell phone for that. Was this the anniversary of them giving me the money they stole from me? Nope. That was just a couple of months ago.

Wedding anniversary? Nope. Only been married for five weeks. Anniversary of my first tattoo? Nope. Don't have one of those.

So my only conclusion, unfortunately, once again... Is that Qwest has some serious soul searching to do. Do they want to be in the customer service business or not? If so, then they need to get their poop in a group.

Public Libraries WERE Bing and Google Before Bing and Google Were Invented

I often hear conversations that go something like this: "What did I ever do before Google?" or "I can't imagine writing that college paper without the references I found on the Internet" or even, "Those Internets and the Google are sure neato." Ok, I made that last one up. But you get my drift.

What did we do before Google? How did we win bets with our friends, find the lyrics to songs, answer trivia questions and find facts for term papers before the instant gratification of the Internet search engine? Answer: The Library!

The Des Moines Public Library still has information specialists (aka librarians) who are available during library hours to answer your most elusive questions. Before Google, these information sleuths were working overtime to find answers for people. So what does the library and its information specialists have that Google doesn't?

Librarians have the ability to TEACH us how to find information. Research methods, 101. Like the old proverb says, teaching someone how to fish is much more efficient than just giving someone a fish. So as search engines work on the problem of serving up fish to order, librarians are perfecting the art of the fisherman.

 So what's this "I Geek the Library" campaign about? Today on Public Relations Princess I will be talking to Jan Kaiser, the marketing director at the Des Moines Public Library and ask her all about it. Tune in at www.macsworldlive.com at 4 p.m. CDT and find out.

U.S. Cellular on Public Relations Princess Today

Today there will be a special edition of Public Relations Princess. A fellow host of mine, Robin Moyer, who normally does her show in the Tuesday 2-3 slot is under the weather today, so I am subbing for her.

My guests today are Chad Settle and Laurie Haeder from U.S. Cellular. U.S. Cellular was the first commercial cell phone provider in Iowa and continues to take part in the lives of Iowans through providing trustworthy customer service, superior cell phone coverage, and premium event sponsorships throughout the state of Iowa.

Today, I'm going to talk to Chad and Laurie about U.S. Cellular's philosophy of sponsoring events in Iowa, and how those sponsorships directly correlate to providing Iowans better economic opportunity, more jobs and more quality of life for all of us who choose to live in Iowa.

So join me today for a special edition of PR Princess, TODAY, Tuesday, from 2-3 p.m. CDT.

Join the show at macsworldlive.com or tweet in your questions to me @clairecelsi during the show.

Senator Dick Durbin: Excellent Media Training on Display

I just watched an interview between CNN's John Roberts and Democratic Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. The topic was the confirmation hearing of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court and a few other issues. I can't find the video yet, but I want to compliment both Senator Durbin and his media trainer on the way he handled this interview.

It's so frustrating to listen to most politicians speak. I know they've received training on how to purposely evade a question, and most of them do it very poorly. They think that you have to completely ignore the question and be evasive. The truth is, you can answer the question being asked and then bridge to another point without being evasive or obnoxious. Senator Durbin's skill in doing just that was on display today. It was refreshing to see such a well-done interview by a politician. He got all of his main talking points in without squirming or seeming not to answer the questions posed. He remained on topic, pleasant and measured his words carefully without getting off track.

Good job, Senator Durbin. Good job, Senator Durbin's Press Secretary. If you have a Republican friend who is just as skilled, have them call Dick Cheney. He is going to need all the help he can get...soon.