Had a moment recently to interface with another “PR professional” both in person and via email. He said he wanted to meet to see if we could collaborate in some way, he said he was interested in this amazing social media conference that is going to take place in June (well, ok who wouldn’t right…very cool and smart speakers are coming!), he said he was doing some work for a friend of mine who is running for office….”well, ok” I said. And so after a brief calendar dance, we had the time marked in the books for today at 9:30.

Guess what? He never showed. Should I say poor me after taking the time out of my day to go and meet with him and he didn’t show up?

No, I should say what were you thinking by not reading his blog first?? Not that there was any clue there that he wouldn’t show up, but there were other hints of his personality to forwarn me starting with the title of his blog which alludes to having no purpose and no focal point (in life? for his blog?). After seeing the title of the blog, I immediately jumped to the idea that he had no purpose then with his business…he is a PR professional afterall and I would think that PR people would love to chatter away about their business and all things pertaining to it which could include about a million subjects.

Big mistake on my part for not paying attention cause if he has no purpose with his blog and he is trying to expand his business what makes me think he will hustle to see me for an appointment? If he could miss my appointment, then what about a client? If he can miss a client, then what about deadlines….this could go on and on.

Blogging=life=business opportunities=reputation. Just read an article on blogging from the Boston Globe stating that “Blogs are essential to a good career” and it goes on to say that “blogging creates a network, gets you a job, helps you move up quickly, provides opportunities and makes self employment easier to name a few benefits!” It states that “blogging is the new PR and the new homepage” (I totally agree) but the article advises to “pick your topics carefully and have a purpose.”
Use your blogging to promote yourself and your business or your passion, have a goal, have some energy, make an effort for the big and little things…it will all show through cause a blog shows effort…you can’t get around it! Blogging is a reputation builder.

Just to prove it David Parmet, www.marketingbeginsathome.com, just did his own google search on himself (PR in Stamford, CT) and he came up first before his last 3 employers who are relatively large PR firms in Stamford, CT.

Blogging works but, as in all things in life, come up with a plan and link it to your life and/or your passion and success will follow!

Had a situation which is a good example of what makes the successful people stand apart from the rest.

I know of some people who say they do PR, public relations.  In a perfect world, they would be proactive and search out PR opportunities (of which there are many) in the organization that they represent.  They would write the story, send it out to the appropriate press and follow up until the story is told.  Well like I said that would be a perfect world.  In an imperfect world, they would at least take what people give them, write the story and then send it out and follow up.  In a less than perfect world, they would take a well written press release and photo with ids and tell the contributor that they don’t have any contacts and they never get their stories in the papers which basically told the contributor to find someone else to send the release and photo out.

Are you kidding me?  Can people really do stuff like this and still think they are helping?

When these PR people were approached and challenged, they were of course outraged.  How could anyone say they weren’t helping?  Again, are you kidding me?  How about asking,” hey, what have I done wrong and how can I correct this situation!”

See, this is what makes the successful people stand out from the others.  Successful people and businesses never turn away from their responsiblities.  Beyond not turning away from their responsibilities, they go above and beyond to complete their job and help others so the whole organization succeeds.  There is no place for defensiveness, for the words “I can’t do it” or the word “no.”  It’s about jumping in and doing no matter how fearful you are, no matter how many times people say no…just do it. 

One day the hard working people with the service first business will succeed.  The employees with the best attitudes, the true team players who also think out of the box will be able to walk around with their heads held high and be proud that their best made a difference.

Success comes from lots of hard work and the ability to say what did I do wrong, what did I do right and how can I help whether it be a public relations job or not!!!

Quite a few times now I have been faced with clients or potential clients who say that they don’t want to blog because they are scared (these are corporate clients).  Scared that a bad situation for their company could blow out of control through the blog, scared because a bad situation could happen because of something said on a blog. 

Well let me counter that.

If a company blogs on a regular basis..they are honest and consistent, then other bloggers will come to rely on them for company information and insight.  When times are good, this is what happens.  A company, when “talking” on the blog, becomes a solid member of the blogosphere.  When in bad times where a crisis for the company occurs, and the blogger sticks to their guns by blogging honestly and consistently, the company will have produced an effective crisis management tool, the blogger and the blogoshere.  Other bloggers already trust your company and the contributor(s) so if your company blogger continues in the same vain when trouble hits, your company will be believed and no doubt supported by a group of people who have become a community through blogging.

Now, other companies say that they are scared to blog in fear that something said on a blog may be misconstrued or misinterpreted.  Yes, there is a chance of this happening but doesn’t this happen anyway in the press or in life (like at a party when you think no one is listening)?  Don’t be afraid to send your message out because it could be misunderstood…this is not the philosophy you took when building your company or division in the first place!

While there will always be a group out there who don’t understand or are miffed by a direction a company takes, the overall affect of a company blog will be positive because you and your blogger(s) are out there, taking chances, communicating and connnecting. 

I have talked about blogging and I have talked about ethics in past entries but what if I combine the two and talk about ethics within the blogging community.

The critics of blogging say that a blog is not a reliable source of information because there is no way to monitor the truth on the blogs. These same critics say anyone can say anything and so the information is not viable. I do agree that there is a great freedom in the blogosphere to say what you want about what you want. What I don’t agree with is that it is not reliable!

The blogoshpere is a self policing community that not only watches itself but watches the news, politics, the arts and the social scene to name a few focal points. Based on what circles you run in or what research you partake in, you may have different snippets of truths that when thrown in with other snippets constitute the whole story, a true story. Products, services and even careers from the “outside”world have been brought down because the truth came out in blog form. Because of these snippets of truths coming from every angle world wide, it would not be beneficial for anyone to lie in their blog….if they do, they are not taken seriously and then are shunned by other bloggers. Blogging is all about the truth or it wouldn’t be worth it for anyone to turn to this form of communication which invovles listening and telling!

Bloggers have nothing to fear either. Many bloggers are passionate about their subject matter and really care about it. They have no motivation to make up stories for a short lived buzz about their blog.

PR/Media people on the other hand have a lot to lose when telling their clients’ story. They have money to lose from a loss of client or a lack of buzz about their client. If they don’t get their client out in the media, then the client fires them, so what do the media/pr people do? They make things up to make their client look good or to get the buzz going. The client is the priority, not the end users.

So who are you going to believe? Jack and Jill from the midwest who care deeply about their new mini van and they blog about it, or the flashy pr company who is trying to make their Mini van client happy? Where is the ethics check in the media? They have just met it, it is called the blogosphere!

Ethics is defined in the dictionary as the study of the general nature of morals (the choice between good and bad in human nature) and of the specific moral choices to be made by the individual in his (and her) relationship with others.

In the mission statement for Creative Concepts,LLC, my company, the final line is Ethical behavor is our first value.

So in other words (my words), ethical means choosing to do the right thing, being true to your word both in following through with an action or paying someone the agreed upon amount and/or paying on time. Ethical means that no matter what transpires and no matter who is doing the wrong thing around you, you continue to stay on a virtuous path.

This has come to mind recently. I am planning a “New Media” conference for June. I have asked a superstar of the blogging world to speak. He doesn’t know me, he has never heard of me, he can barely check on me because my website is still under contruction, he can check the google search and see some things, but still he is in CA, I am in CT, he doesn’t know me.

He brought it to my attention that he doesn’t know me and how will he know that I can follow through with my committment to him? It was a valid question. I gave him my response (a mission statement and rough overview of the event which showed my passion and committment for this forum) which he is fine with for now, but no doubt he will be holding his breath until he meets me and I hand over the check.

As sad as his doubts may be in human nature (and he has every reason to feel that way), it is a constant struggle in life to stay true and to find the truth around you. The good news is that an ethical business person always wins over the ones who choose otherwise. Ethics always win in the long run. It may take awhile in some instances, but a person with ethics can be trusted and relied on and in the end of a life, a career, a business, that is all you have: respect for how you have conducted yourself.

Ethical behavior is the first value for Creative Concepts, LLC and for Valorie Luther, Founder of this emerging PR and Marketing firm.

This is my first blog entry for Creative Concepts, a pr and marketing firm specializing in finding the answers for small to medium sized companies who need help with their pr and marketing efforts or for large companies who need a fresh point of view. 

One of the services we provide is a blogging service.  You must be asking how that is possible when this is only my first entry.  Well, I have blogged for quite some time now through www.Entertainingnews.blogspot.com which is focused on event planning and other cool news items in the entertainment world.  We, at Creative Concepts, also have a blogging expert, Sabine Kirstein, www.ctbizblogs.com, who helps each client with the technical aspects of blogging.  In addition to my pr/marketing support and Sabine’s technical support, we have a blog designer who only designs blogs.  This is very important in the corporate arena where branding is being lost on the blogs.  We feel that not only are the words important but the visual is as well.

 For more information about Creative Concepts, please email info@creative-conceptsllc.com (our website is being reworked so check back later for the site that will tell you everything about Creative Concepts, LLC)