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Til Next Time

Bursting

It’s been quite some time since my last update, but my silence here has meant lots of work and change in the background.

The biggest change has been my new role as Global Digital Manager at The Nature Conservancy. After 6+ years in PR agency life, I decided to make the jump to go “client side.” While I miss certain things about being embedded in a super creative team, I love my new role, and the challenges and opportunities that come with it. After spending 1 month in Beijing and 7 months in Mongolia, I certainly caught the bug and am happy to be working in a global capacity!

In addition to the jump to TNC, I have decided to hit the pause button here at PR Prescriptions while I work on a few “soon-to-be-launched” projects. I have learned so much by sharing thoughts here and the conversations will definitely carry on!

In the meantime, you can get updates via JamesSWalker.com or Twitter (@jaywalk1). I’m nearly bursting at the seams, but I will share updates soon!

All the best…

Twestival: A True Change of Heart

I’m passionate about a lot of things that might not matter so much to other people. Biographies, MUSIC!, Meeting new people, REAL conversation (real life, real issues, real thoughts), Kehinde Wiley paintings, Post-its (not kidding…), Summer rain, Art made from wood, metal and glass, Magazines (Long live print magazines!), BMWs and of course PR and Social Media!

passion

Those things may not rank high on your list, but I also care a great deal about health care and education. Health care was something I took for granted really until I started working at a health care communications firm. I realized that so many people out there were in trouble because they didn’t have the right information and support, and this goes for both prevention and treatment. For this reason, I’ll always do what I can to share information of that can save lives.

healthed

Education is something that I greatly value. I was raised by a teacher, so besides my own schooling, I spent many hours in the classroom. I think it is so very important and I want to do what I can to share that with others as well. I tutored while I was in college, am seriously considering getting back into it now and most certainly plan to become an adjunct professor at some point in the future. I love gaining and sharing knowledge. That’s probably why I’m so passionate about PR and social media.

water

Now that I’ve gone through all of that, I’d like to share with you my newest passion: Water. My passion for education was bound to develop and I really just fell into health care, but water came to me through purposeful appeals. The first time the issue of water, specifically the fact that some people in the world didn’t have access to clean water, clicked for me was during an MTV special I watched years ago that followed Jay Z and his involvement with a well built in a small village in Africa. I thought “Cool idea. Good that he’s doing that” and went back to my regularly scheduled life. It was cool, but it was also on TV and seemed almost like another entertainment program I could turn off when I was ready.

twestival-logo1

Fast forward a few years and you have James, 22 year old semi-socially aware working professional who has discovered 53.6 percent of himself and is extremely focused on mastering PR and rising not just in the company but in the industry. In comes this thing called Twestival which sounds like an amazing campaign inspired by the source of all, a.k.a Twitter.

Basics: Cities all over the world hosting happy hours events on February 12th to raise money for and awareness of charity:water,  a non-profit dedicated to bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. Sounds great right?

twestival1

Right, so I got pumped about it, invited a few friends and showed up on the 12th ready to get invested (physically and monetarily) in the cause. I don’t think I have EVER been more disappointed with an event. The event just wasn’t about increasing access to water, or at least I’ll say that I didn’t get that feeling. There were a couple signs, people taking pictures and a less than amazing group of merchandise being displayed for a silent auction. I didn’t meet anyone who told me more about the cause, what I could do to help or what happened next. My friends and I were completely turned off and put it in the box of bad happy hour memories (thankfully this box is pretty empty). I was so turned off that even though I tweeted all about it prior to going, I nixed my plans to write a post about it. I was going to be polite and silent since I had nothing nice to say at all, but I could resist commenting when fellow Brazen blogger Allison Jones wrote about her thoughts on the campaign. I thought my connection to Twestival and charity:water was done, but then I got an email with this subject: “You gave us money. Now what?”

twestival-21

They read my mind and provided more than a few lines about how much money they raised and a link to give more. They are posting video from right there on the ground as the plan comes to fruition. The wells are being drilled, lives are being improved and people like me are being won over. I’ve had a true change of heart and will be reaching out to them to see what I can do to help. Hopefully there will more updates to come…

Has your company done anything cool lately?

In my search for all that is interesting involving PR, Marketing and Social Media, one company keeps appearing in my inbox, wall or twitterfeed: LEGO.

I’ve blogged about my connection to Lego in the past, but aside from Apple, who definitely knows how to get my attention, I can’t think of many companies that have been able to regularly make me say “that’s cool.” To some of you reading, it may not sound like an amazing accomplishment for a customer’s reaction to a brand to be “that’s cool,” but I think it is, considering the options: “That’s stupid,” “That’s a waste,” “Someone got paid to come up with that idea,” or, among the worst in my opinion, SILENCE – being so irrelevant that your efforts don’t even get noticed.

Here are just some of the ways that Lego has migrated onto and setup shop on my cool list:

1. Creating an anniversary celebration like this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-saSYvj6Qqc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fprprescriptions.com%2F2008%2F09%2F&feature=player_embedded]

2. Inspiring someone to recreate art like this using your product:

lunch_skyscraper

3. Being the focus of a section in the master guide that is Groundswell:

groundswell4. Having so much online content that you could have an Alltop page:

alltop-logo5. Using your product as your business card…literally:

lego_cardNot every company is going to be able to do these types of things – different products, industry, goals, mission, etc. – BUT, every company can be involved in something this noticeable, this innovative, this different, this cool.

What other companies would you put in the “Lego Cool” category? Has your company done anything cool lately?

You've been brandjacked. Now What?

Coca-Cola is the focus of the second most popular group on Facebook. Who’s number 1? None other than the POTUS himself, Barack Obama. I saw traces of this story bouncing around in the twittersphere and didn’t think much of it until I read this piece by Ad Age: How Two Coke Fans Brought the Brand to Facebook Fame.

 ”Pop quiz: Who has the most popular page on Facebook? Barack Obama. Who’s second? Coca- Cola. Yes, sugared water runs second only to the  leader of the free world.”

coke-facebook0313091

According to Ad Age, an aspiring actor and Coke aficionado Dusty Sorg was looking for a fan page in late 2008. He didn’t find a legitimate one, so he found an image and created one himself. Not crazy or unheard of. Customers do it all the time. Here’s the crazy part. Out of the 253 pages devoted to coke, Dusty’s became the most popular with nearly 3.3 million fans! Sounds great, but there’s a problem:

Coke had NOTHING to do with a very popular page on a social networking site that caters to a large chunk of their core audience.

The page eventually became populated with all sorts of things (spam,etc). Facebook was ready to step in and shut it down because the page was technically in violation of the site’s terms (Brand-focused fan pages must be run by people officially affiliated with/authorized by the brand). What happened next is a testament to the marketing savvy of Coke brand managers (or the talented behind-the-scenes PR and Marketing firm folks). 

Coke offered to share the page with the creators, flew them down to Atlanta for a few days of meetings and gave them a tour of the World of Coke museum. Win, win and win. 

As with most things in social media, there isn’t a one size fits all solution, but if you think things through, you’ll come up with something that works for everyone involved. If you ever find yourself (or one of your clients) brandjacked, here are a few things you can do. 

1. Answer this: Who are these people?  Start a profile- Name, age, occupation, location. 

2. Determine if these people are friends or enemies. What have they said about your brand and others? 

3. If they are friends, is there a way that you can support them? Giveaways, involvement in contests, special brand-related info? 

4. If they are enemies, is there a way to address them without making too much of a fuss? How dangerous are they to the brand? Is addressing them even necessary? 

5. No matter what (friend or foe), decide how they could play into the brand’s future activities in this space and others.