Last week my blog was about my view of technology and small business over the course of the past 29 years.  This week I want to talk about the internet based world of technology today and what it means to my business and to our clients’ businesses. 

Public relations used to be the practice of approaching the traditional media (print, broadcast, magazines) to garner third party endorsements for our clients.  These third party articles or endorsements were valued by our client’s customers and client’s sales rose as a result. Today, many traditional media are shutting down or moving to the internet due to the lack of traditional advertising revenue.   

The internet is an open medium.  Press releases historically were not.  Today, public relations messages placed on the web have the ability to drive client’s sales as well as attract traditional and new media articles.  This is an amazing leap forward in the value of public relations. 

Driving client’s sales on the web means pushing the client name up to the number one or two slot on search engines.  At LANE PR we are now as focused on a client’s search results as we are on the quantity of clips that we garner for them. 

We drive search rankings by optimizing all of the usual public relations tools - press releases, white papers, media kits, with key words and hyperlinks.  Additionally, we are now responsible for our client’s news rooms and monitoring their search rankings and Google Analytics.  Bringing these tools under our responsibility allows us to monitor the results of our public relations efforts.   Social media campaigns provide another very rich opportunity for driving additional rankings and sales for clients.  Public relations can now accomplish organically what pay-for-click attempts to do.  

We have added all of these tools to our public relations tool kit at no extra charge to our clients.     I have always maintained that public relations existed only to drive sales or company value for our clients.  With new media, our public relations strategies can now be directly linked to the client’s sales as well as their news clips. 

As a trained marketing professional, I started LANE PR in 1990 as a public relations agency.  Although I am a strong believer in integrated marketing strategies, I felt that public relations was the most cost effective tool to increase sales and grow value for our clients.  With the advent of new media, public relations has exponentially increased its ability to drive sales and to be the most cost effective marketing tool available.   

Wendy Lane

It’s tough to be optimistic about the economy today.  The market remains volatile on a daily basis, the unemployment rate is the highest it has been in 25+ years, G.E. is in trouble (read the NY Times article from this past Sunday), I could go on and on.

However, Justin Fox from TIME magazine had some thoughts this morning about why he is optimistic right now.  While he’s not particularly convincing, and even a little wishy washy on some of his points, if you’re looking for some hope consider his 3 reasons why you should be optimistic about the economy:

1. Stock market not overpriced (Fox says don’t just look at one year of earnings.)
2. Government involvement in fixing the economy (While many would say yikes to this, Fox claims we should be thankful that the government is being proactive, realistic and moving us forward.)
3. Consumer savings rate up (This is good in the long term and even in the short term because it helps us get to the bottom quicker so we can move into recovery.)

Here’s the full CNBC segment with Justin Fox: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1057945685&play=1

During an amazing two-week adventure in western and southern Ireland, I saw and tasted dozens and dozens of loaves of soda bread.  What I found to be most fascinating were the variations in taste, texture and color.  While some differences were more subtle, others were more dramatic, including the addition of such ingredients as caraway seeds, dried fruits and nuts.

Much to my delight, soda bread (often called “brown bread”) was served at every meal in Ireland.  At breakfast, I’d slather a warm slice with chunky orange marmalade made by the owners of our B&B; at lunch, as an open-faced sandwich topped with thick slices of heavenly smoked salmon and a side of greens; and at dinner, to sop up the remains of my seafood chowder, soup or Irish stew.  

Soda bread’s roots trace back to the 19th century, when baking soda was introduced as a leavening agent. Combined with flour and buttermilk, and salt, it’s extremely simple to make.  The Irish are committed to safeguarding the tradition of soda bread.  In fact, there’s even a “Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread.”

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, the following is a basic recipe, courtesy of EatingWell.com.

Whole-Wheat Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients
• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups buttermilk

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray and sprinkle with a little flour. Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in buttermilk. Using one hand, stir in full circles (starting in the center of the bowl working toward the outside of the bowl) until all the flour is incorporated. The dough should be soft but not too wet and sticky. When it all comes together, in a matter of seconds, turn it out onto a well-floured surface. Clean dough off your hand.
Pat and roll the dough gently with floury hands, just enough to tidy it up and give it a round shape. Flip over and flatten slightly to about 2 inches. Transfer the loaf to the prepared baking sheet. Mark with a deep cross using a serrated knife and prick each of the four quadrants.

Bake the bread for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400° and continue to bake until the loaf is brown on top and sounds hollow when tapped, 30 to 35 minutes more. Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and let cool for about 30 minutes.

I am getting into Twitter more every day.  It’s exciting to see which companies and brands are using Twitter and how they’re using it to promote their business and/or product.  Last week I went to Voicebox (www.voiceboxpdx.com), a new karaoke hot spot in Portland.  It’s not a typical karaoke bar; you rent private rooms for 10-12 people.  When we arrived, an employee promptly got us set up in our private room and took our drink orders.  He announced that if we were on Twitter and started “following” @voiceboxpdx on Twitter, or even just gave them a shout out, we would receive two-for-one drinks for the entire evening. 

I thought it was a genius idea. Voicebox makes instant Twitter followers with every group that comes in.  And because I now follow @voiceboxpdx on Twitter, I am privy to Friday tweet specials.  Last week’s special was the first two groups to “tweet” that evening got a private room for 18 people at half the cost. If you’re on Twitter, check them out.

I had the pleasure of sitting in on a middle market private equity company’s annual meeting last week in Chicago. It’s always interesting to get different perspectives and predictions on the state of the economy and the timeframe of its recovery… as well as how that recovery will actually happen.

A private equity investor with a 30+ year tenure in the industry finds the following:

• PATIENCE: We must be patient – this is a process, not an event.

• LOW GROWTH: for the next three to five years we will be in an “L” recovery (versus U or V) and experience low growth.

• SAVINGS: We must change the way we look at our assets and how we both spend and invest our money.  For Americans, homes were once our primary asset, but now we need to become savings driven, not real estate driven.

• THINK LOCAL: Recovery will begin at the local level with small business and grow outward from there. Innovation is key to helping move this recovery along.

I met with a member of the Forbes Chicago bureau this week. We had a lengthy discussion about the shift to media consumption online and how that has changed her job.

She informed me the big push now is for “snippets” – very brief online news pieces that are constantly being replaced by other snippets as news is pumped out in real time.

However, she said what she most enjoys is investigative reporting and in-depth feature stories. So in order to best serve both her interests and her editors’ push for frequent, brief online posts, she is now producing what we decided to call “snippet features”. 

Can a feature story also be a snippet? This is the reality for many reporters today.

This is my first blog about technology and truly, my first blog ever.  I would like to talk about technology and business from a historical 10,000-foot level.  As a public relations practitioner, I remember when key client messages were delivered by snail mail and the telephone.  My children will tell you that they remember stuffing envelopes full of press releases in front of Sesame Street.  

I was at another advertising and public relations firm in the 1980s.  I attended a KPMG breakfast that featured Regis McKenna.  Regis was the person who used public relations to launch Apple.  He told our morning audience that the future was bright.  In 10 years we would all have amazing computing ability that would allow us more free time.  Regis was a very bright guy, however, I don’t think that he understood human nature and could envision how much more people would allow those computers to cram into their 24/7 days.

Also in the 1980s, Waggoner Edstrom hired our firm to help launch Microsoft Windows at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.  They told me that Windows was the equivalent of a new typewriter and wanted to portray the influence of the typewriter through the ages on business as one walked up the curved galleries at the museum.  It was a big, visual idea.

Around that time came the age of the fax, and fax machines initially couldn’t talk to fax machines from other brands.  This seemed a complete waste of time as no fax brand rose to gain the majority market share.  Fortunately, technology that allowed cross-branded fax machines to talk to each other came on the market.

In the early 1990s I attended an Internet conference in Los Angeles.  There were over 500 people in the room and the Internet on the screen was black and white, no picture, and plain text.   A marketing fellow from a national beer brand stood up to demonstrate the first Internet sales promotions that I ever saw.  It was pretty rough.

But Web sites were growing in importance and programmers seemed to be making their development as mysterious and expensive as possible. My firm had a rather large client who wanted a Web site.  We obtained three price quotes and the best one was for $200,000.  Obviously, the client decided not to be first to market with this new technology avenue.

Starting my company, LANE PR, in the 1990s, I made the personal commitment to spend any cash reserves on high quality talent and the latest technology.  As Web sites and e-mail became important, my spending on technology increased.  Then we started to attract technology companies as clients.

It was the late 1990s heyday.  Public relations firms became totally focused on technology.  VC firms referred their favorite public relations firms to their portfolio companies.  The average public relations retainers in Silicon Valley were $60,000 per month.  Advertising was growing as well, so the technology and business magazines became two inches thick.  The entire strategy was to launch a company, gain market share through public relations and advertising in an 18 month period (18 months was deemed the viable business window for most technology ideas), and sell or go public.

I liked technology clients.  They were smart, visionary and confidant.  Unfortunately, March 2001 came around with a technology-based recession.  The technology companies whose only business model was market share tanked.  The media was roundly blamed for not understanding traditional business models and drinking the Kool-Aid with these confident technology CEOs. 

That brings us to the post-technology recession period.  I will talk about that in my next blog.

Wendy Lane

We’ve heard a lot about sustainable building and LEED certification, but how do you get the funding to turn well-meaning ideas into reality? One of our clients, Umpqua Bank, worked with Energy Trust of Oregon to create an innovative new lending program that’s filling this gap. Called GreenStreet Lending, it offers financing options designed to help small businesses and homeowners manage rising energy costs by making it easier to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. What better way to spur economic growth than with green-building projects?

Thomas Mathews, Wine Spectator executive editor boldly said, “Spain is the most exciting and dynamic wine producing country in Europe today,” during the 2009 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival where Spanish wines took center stage. Their Majesties King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia cut the ribbon at the Wines from Spain Pavilion at the Wine Spectator Trade Tasting Day. Other exciting events throughout the festival included:

• Their Majesties King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia were the guests of honor at ¡Viva España!, The Wines and Foods from Spain, held at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. Jose Andres, a renowned chef and host of the PBS series “Made in Spain,” served as the culinary chairman for the event. Mario Batali, award-winning and internationally acclaimed chef and author of “Spain… A Culinary Road Trip,” served as the evening’s emcee.

• Festival goers sipped the wines of Rioja at the Amstel Light Burger Bash - hosted by Rachael Ray and presented by Allen Brothers. Vibrant Rioja was the exclusive wine sponsor of the event.

• The Wines from Spain Pavilion in the Whole Foods Market Grand Tasting Village featured more than 100 wines from more than 20 producers from regions across Spain.

• The Fontainebleau Miami Beach hosted the Wine Spectator’s Best of the Best sponsored by Bank of America and featuring the following Spanish wineries: Bodegas Montecillo, Campo Viejo, Freixenet, Grupo Barón de Ley, Grupo Pesquera, Marqués de Riscal, Pago de Vallegarcia, Segura Viudas and Torres.

• Various Spanish wineries also participated in seven individual Wine Spectator’s Wine Seminar Series throughout the festival, including presentations from Victor Charcán of Grupo Barón de Ley; Miguel Torres, Jr. of Torres Group; Jose Luis Muguiro of Marqués de Riscal; Elena Adell, the winemaker at Campo Viejo; Carlos Falcó, the president of Pagos de Familia Marqués de Griñon; Vicente Dalmau Cebrián-Sagarriga; Count of Creixell, the president of Marqués de Murrieta; and Pablo Alvarez, the owner of Vega Sicilia.

• Steve Olson, noted wine educator and Sherry expert, hosted two seminars as part of the Bank of America Lifestyle Wine and Spirits Seminars at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel.

Living sustainably is often about making smart small choices that add up. But where to start? Check out Ideal Bite – www.idealbite.com. This daily e-mail service offers “bite-sized ideas for light green living.”

It’s quick, clever and might just inspire some simple changes that help the environment and your wallet.

We all know that, when used correctly, social networking sites (like Facebook) and microblogging services (such as Twitter) can be an excellent means of promoting new products or services and even building brand loyalty.  I am always listening for good examples of how this is being done in the real world, and yesterday, I heard one. A woman was shopping at a local clothier for vacation attire.  As she was ringing up her purchases, the salesperson asked her if she was going somewhere fun.  When she replied “Costa Rica,” the salesperson handed her a card inscribed with the store’s Facebook page and Flickr account. “When you get there, take pictures of yourself in your new clothes and post them to our sites!”  Assuming the woman takes the retailer up on the offer, this clever tactic serves several purposes:

1. The retailer gains greater reach by adding the woman to the retailer’s group of “friends.”  By doing so, the woman has essentially given her permission to receive special offers, messages and news from the retailer.
2. The retailer earns a third party endorsement. 
3. The retailer gives emphasis to its position as a lifestyle brand for jet setters.
4. The retailer has an instant ad campaign without paying travel costs, model and photographer fees.

Another thing the retailer could have done to gain greater involvement?  Incent shoppers to post their photos by holding a monthly drawing for an all-expense paid trip to another exotic locale.

A number of members of the media have told me they think traditional trade shows are dying, albeit a slow death. While this varies depending on the industry the trade show serves, the editor of an engineering publication, whose staff traditionally frequented industry shows, believes the trade show will be obsolete within the next five years due to associated costs and resources. And it will be replaced by the virtual show.

About a week later, during my travels to Chicago, I picked up the Tribune and found this interesting piece on the same topic and showcasing some success stories of virtual shows http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-mon-virtual-trade-show-feb23,0,1946913.story

Just like the ever increasing interaction online has substituted old fashioned phone calls and long business lunches, will the virtual trade show really be able to successfully replace the more subtle but undeniably better connection you get with someone after having an in-person conversation and a handshake?

I had the most amazing experience ever in my public relations career last weekend at the 2009 South Beach Wine & Food Festival in Miami, Fla.  It was the most incredible event I’ve ever been to –top tier media and celebrity chefs everywhere I went!   I was there representing a client, the Wines from Spain, and the biggest highlight of the weekend was when Their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain, Juan Carlos I and Sofia, made an appearance at the Wines from Spain Pavilion to kick off the festival.  It was a momentous day for Spanish wines and I was thrilled to be a part of it!  I even got to shake the King’s hand. 

The next day, I met Natalie Morales from the Today Show – she stopped by the Pavilion and I was happy to learn that she’s a fan of Spanish wines!  She was extremely nice and great to talk to.  I met so many incredible journalists at the festival and savored the great food of Miami.  It was an unforgettable weekend!

I was on the road for two weeks in February, with a client talking to media, and was able to gain some firsthand insight into how the media is changing and what it’s like to be a reporter or editor these days.

A few takeaways:
• Video is essential. A number of editors strongly encouraged me to work with my clients on embedding video into press releases.  Video is a critical component of keeping readers on news Web sites. The media want press releases to be more visual and engaging than the standard text format with a quote from the company.

Videos must be short in length. How-to demonstrations accompanying new products or services are well received.

• Print is still alive. While the shift to online news consumption is very real, a number of media I spoke with (note most of these media are trade/vertical focused serving engineers and the electronics industry) believe while frequency of their print editions may lessen, the print magazine will continue to be what keeps readers coming back. Specifically, technical papers and in-depth features continue to be in high demand.

• Content is king – and media needs our help with it. They want fresh content that is brief and informative. Tutorials, how-tos, instruction and never-before-seen information that will keep readers coming back for more. Also, articles authored by industry leaders provide unique viewpoints to readers and take the burden off of the typically lean editorial staff.