Author: Josephine Butler

NCPRSA vs. RPRS

Josephine ButlerAPR, Blog, Professional Development, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, , , , , , , ,

Are you a public relations or communications professional? Then you probably realize the importance of getting out and networking! If you’re located here at a Raleigh PR agency or somewhere else in the Triangle, there are two great organizations you should consider joining: the North Carolina Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (NCPRSA) or the Raleigh Public Relations Society (RPRS). While I personally recommend becoming a member of both, if you had to pick just one, here are a few tips that will help you decide which group is right for you.

For starters, let’s take a look at what is offered by both groups:

  • Luncheons are held each month, where local PR professionals and industry leaders will share ideas and case studies.
  • Each group hosts an annual awards ceremony – NCPRSA hosts the InSpire Awards and RPRS hosts the Sir Walter Raleigh Awards – recognizing successful communications campaigns and tactics.
  • Members receive discounted rates on monthly luncheons and other events.

Now, let’s hone in on what NCPRSA has to offer:

  • This group is comprised of PR professionals with a broad range of experiences and leadership positions at every level. From CEOs to entry-level employees, there’s a lot of variety.
  • Each year, the organization hosts a PR & Marketing Seminar, playing host to both local and national communications experts.
  • On the website, members have access to the NCPRSA Job Bank, where local employers frequently post new job openings and leadership opportunities.
  • The North Carolina chapter of PRSA is part of the world’s largest network of PR professionals.
  • Within PRSA, you have the option to join one of 16 professional interest sections, putting you in touch with other members who share your expertise.
  • The organization offers the industries only accreditation program, Accredited in Public Relations (APR) program.
  • When you become a member, you’ll receive periodicals, daily news updates and access to research, articles, white papers and case studies.
  • Because of the larger network, dues are pricier than other local groups. National dues are $255 annually, plus a $65 initiation fee and the local chapter fee.

Now let’s take a look at what RPRS has to offer:

  • This group also features PR professionals at every career level, but has an especially strong presence of entry-level to account supervisor-level members.
  • In addition to monthly luncheons, this group will occasionally arrange tours at local media outlets.
  • Twice a year, the organization will host free networking socials at popular Raleigh restaurants.
  • An attractive economic option for members with a smaller budget, individual dues are only $75 annually.

Now that you’ve had a chance to learn more about these wonderful organizations, feel free to ask questions. Dana and Tracy both sit on the board for NCPRSA, while I (Josie) serve as publicity chair for RPRS. We’d love to help you decide which group (or if both groups) is right for you!

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What We’ve Learned About Healthy School Lunches from Martha Payne and the Chef Challenge

Josephine ButlerBlog, In Our Community, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, Sustainability, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Chef Greg Hamm of the Natural Chef Culinary Program at Central Carolina Community College shares his creations with the public at Briar Chapel’s Earth Day celebration.

We recently read an article from the News & Observer about 9-year-old Martha Payne, who posted images of “uninspiring school meals” on her blog, Never Seconds. The blog has gotten more than 2 million hits and gained attention of school officials and cafeteria staff. The story has drawn national and international media coverage, and we can’t help think of our client Briar Chapel and partner nonprofit, The Abundance Foundation, and their own stroke of genius: the Chatham County Chef Challenge.

In case you missed it, the Chef Challenge is an annual event that invites local celebrity chefs from well-known area restaurants (this year, we enjoyed working with the Fearrington House Restaurant, Crossroads at Carolina Inn and Central Carolina Community College) to create healthy and delicious school lunches. Each of the chef’s dishes competed head to head with traditional school lunch favorites – think chicken nuggets, pizza and nachos. And believe it or not, the chef’s dishes won! An overwhelming 85 percent of students agreed that the chef’s culinary creations were much tastier than the same-old, less healthy options.

To give you an idea of a dish the kids love, take Chef Colin Bedford of the Fearrington for example. He cooked up a tasty chocolate cake that was actually good for you. Healthy chocolate cake!? While this may sound a little oxymoronic, trust us when we say that Chef Colin snuck in hearty ingredients like spinach and carrots – the kids had no idea!

The goal behind each of the chef’s recipes was that cafeteria staff could easily duplicate it. The chefs held several training days through the school year to teaching team members how to use equipment found in their own kitchens, as well as locally grown ingredients, to recreate each of the dishes. Not only did the kids love the new menu items, but staff members also enjoyed learning something new!

And that’s why we love the story about this 9-year-old making a stand for better school lunches. She’s shedding light on a hot topic that our client Briar Chapel has also embraced. Together, parents and students can become more educated on making healthy school lunch choices, while keeping costs down!

In the meantime, we’re busy gearing up for the Chef Challenge in 2013 and can’t wait to see what the chefs will come up with this year!

P.S. Did you catch Tami Schwerin, executive director of the Abundance Foundation, and Kristy Yule, marketing director of Briar Chapel, on ABC 11? They give a big shout-out to the Chef Challenge!

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More Advice on How to Create Effective Facebook Advertisements

Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Thanks, HubSpot, for the great read!

In addition to my recent blog post, Does Facebook Advertising Really Work?, where I share advice that I learned from my friends over at Webtrends and Social Fresh, I wanted to share a few more best practices with you. While creating Facebook ads may not be rocket science, there certainly are a few tips and tricks that will help to maximize results while minimizing costs.

In an e-book entitled “Create Epic Facebook Ads,” experts over at HubSpot share some great ideas on how to use Facebook advertising for lead generation. While a lot of their advice was very similar to what I shared in my last post, I wanted to touch on some things that I wasn’t able to the first time around.

Before we dive in, let’s toot the Facebook advertising horn. The social networking site provides one of the most targeted advertising opportunities out there today. Did you know that projections have forecast that Facebook’s ad revenue for 2011 may have been around $2.5 billion? Yowzers! Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about how it works.

Like Google ads, Facebook ad pricing works on an auction system. You’re essentially bidding on likes and peoples’ interests. This allows you to be as narrow or as broad as you’d like. Pricing can vary by how small or large your audience is, and yes, you guessed it — the more narrow the search, the more expensive the click.

There’s also another relatively new form of Facebook advertising out there: Sponsored Stories. These stories enable you to advertise an individual’s action. For instance, if one of your friends likes Clairemont Communications on Facebook, we can pay for it to appear alongside your newsfeed. Pretty rockin’, eh? This phenomenon, known as social proofing, is arguably the most valuable form of advertising on Facebook and can also be less expensive.

Now that we’ve covered the basics. We’d also like to share a few tips with you.

  1. Split-test your ads! It can be tough to figure out what strategy works best for your Facebook ads (it can vary from client to client, product to product, person to person). That’s why it’s important to measure what’s working, while it’s working. Remember to stay true to principles you learned in seventh grade science class, like changing only one variable at a time and keeping similar ad conditions.
  2. When you are setting up an ad, make sure to check the box next to “Show stories about people interacting with this Page with my ad.” Remember what we said about social proofing?
  3. Did you know that questions make great ad titles?
  4. Images of people tend to convert better than logos do.
  5. Don’t narrow your target to less than 20,000 unless it’s a special circumstance. That’s because Facebook will reward you with cheaper clicks when you get more clicks on your ads. May the odds be ever in your favor (and this tip should help)!
  6. Target friends of fans. You’re automatically building in the social proof factor, as ads will usually say something like this at the bottom: “Josephine Butler likes this.”
  7. Start your ads with a CPC (cost per click) bid. It’s usually cheaper than CPM (cost per thousand impressions). Facebook will do the math for you in your campaign report, so you can see which option is cheaper and make the switch, if needed.
  8. Always start your bid at the suggested bid or even higher. If you don’t bid high enough, your ad will never been seen (or maybe only three times around 4 a.m.).
  9. Don’t ignore demographics! The beautiful report Facebook will conjure up for you can come in handy, big time! By viewing your report, you’ll be able to get an idea of who is clicking on your ads, offering major target audience insight.

How’d you like this second round of tips? Did you find them helpful? Remember that while Facebook ads can be extremely effective, they should be only one part of a larger, more comprehensive social media strategy — and we can help you with that!

Have any questions for us? We’ve got answers!

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What Does a PR Agency Do? Community Relations Case Study

Josephine ButlerAwards, Blog, Case Studies, Marketing, Public Relations, Raleigh PR Agency, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , , , , , , , , ,
ABC 11’s Angela Hampton poses with Santa Claus, himself!

People commonly ask us what a PR agency does. We thought the best way to answer that question would be to share case studies from our work that was recently recognized at the North Carolina chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (NCPRSA) InSpire Awards. Clairemont won 14 InSpire Awards, and we hope that this “Award Winning Wednesday” blog series will inspire you, too!

Client: Triangle Family Services, a United Way of the Greater Triangle partner agency that has been dedicated to assisting families in need for 75 years, providing programs focused on financial stability, family safety and mental health services to more than 7,000 area residents.

Objective: Provide media relations support for the Annual Gingerbread Benefit, the premier fundraising event for TFS, with the following goals in mind:

  1. Use the event to boost overall awareness of TFS and the role it plays in the community by securing local news stories
  2. Help TFS repeat revenue generation of the 2010 event, totaling $93,165 (the largest in the event’s history)
  3. Increase attendance of new donors to help address an overall challenge facing TFS – its aging donor base

Execution: In addition to providing media relations support, Clairemont team members served on the event planning committee for the Gingerbread Benefit.

  • Research: The Clairemont team researched the Gingerbread Benefits held in   previous years. We interviewed the organization’s director and event co-chairs to determine their expectations for the event. Additionally, we took a look at what other popular holiday events were going on in the Triangle around the same time. We used this information to identify what types of events would garner the most attendance and what types of auction items would secure the most interest from bidders.
  • Planning: The Clairemont team participated in monthly meetings and calls to begin planning for the event. Based on our research, we identified several target audiences, including first-time (or new) donors, as well as outlined objectives for our media relations support.
  • Execution – pre-event: Previous pitching experience, including pitching the 2010 Gingerbread Benefit, taught us that local reporters often feel overwhelmed by the number of pitches they receive surrounding holiday benefits. Because of this, we knew we had to get creative with our pitches and took the following approach:  Business angle: Any information or updates surrounding the corporate sponsors of the event, we submitted to business outlets and reporters. Business angle: Any information or updates surrounding the corporate sponsors of the event, we submitted to business outlets and reporters. Chef pitch: Because the event featured gingerbread houses created and then donated for auction by local celebrity chefs, we identified the area’s most recognized local food blog, the News & Observer’s Mouthful, as an appropriate target. With the idea in mind that building gingerbread houses offered excellent visuals, we also successfully pitched local TV stations. Attendance drivers: We submitted event information to local online event calendars. Additionally, we issued two releases on Business Wire to share with reporters and boost SEO.
  • Execution – onsite logistics: The Clairemont team provided onsite support the day of the event, with one team member serving as volunteer coordinator. Because of our strong ties to ABC 11’s Angela Hampton, the emcee for the event, the Clairemont team also served as her point of contact. Additionally, we took photographs of the gingerbread houses as they were being delivered and shared them via the Triangle Family Services Facebook page. Tagging participating vendors and chefs created last-minute buzz that enticed additional people to come to the event that evening.
  • Results: Our media relations campaign was a success! Here’s how we measured up to each of our stated objectives:
  1. Through the placement of nine news stories including interviews on ABC 11 and NBC 17, we strengthened brand recognition of TFS and the Gingerbread Benefit. Additionally, advance coverage from outlets such as Cary Magazine and Mouthful, gave the event credibility and helped increase ticket sales.
  2. Clairemont helped raise total event revenue by 3 percent from 2010 and 174 percent from 2009.
  3. Tickets purchased by new donors represented 50 percent of all ticket sales (a 20 percent increase from last year).

All in all, our efforts were a total success and helped us exceed each of our objectives. Now, we’re already kicking things into high gear to begin planning (and pitching) the organization’s 10th Annual Gingerbread Benefit and 75th anniversary! Stay tuned…

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Best Practices for Facebook Timeline

Josephine ButlerBlog, Marketing, Social Media + Influencer Engagement, , , , , , ,

As Margot mentioned earlier, one of the ways that Clairemont team members work on professional development is by reading. I’m constantly seeking the latest and greatest when it comes to social media and public relations. Recently, I had the chance to review an e-book from our friends at Hubspot entitled, “New Facebook Business Page Timelines,” and I wanted to share a few best practices with you.

1)   Think visual! With the integration of timeline comes the opportunity for visual storytelling. The most popular pieces of content are usually photos and videos. If you’re looking for an example of how to tell you company’s story, we recommend checking out the Thomasville Furniture Facebook page. We worked closely with the Thomasville team to collect old photos and milestones for the page. Because the company has a rich history, the options were nearly endless!

One of our favorite milestones from the Thomasville Facebook page.

2)   Use a logo for your profile picture. This is especially important because it visually associates your brand with any sponsored stories or ads that you run.

3)   Turn your featured apps into compelling calls-to-action. Because Facebook did away with welcome landing pages, you can now showcase your page’s content using the apps toolbar in the upper right-hand corner. I really like the idea of using text-based images because it allows you to explain the app’s features or benefits to users. Here’s a great example of a call to action:

Hubspot’s compelling call to action!

4)   Pin new promotions every seven days. When content stays fresh, engagement will remain steady. I actually recommend pinning things for three days or less, if possible (similar to my recent advice about Facebook advertising).

5)   Publish more than once a day. Previously, brands didn’t want to post more than once or twice a day because when you bombard fans with too many posts, they’ll unlike your page. Nowadays, the algorithm for users’ news feeds has changed. If you’re not posting several times a day, your content is getting lost in the feed.

Again, these are just a handful of tips that I found helpful. If you’d like to read more, you can find the e-book here: http://www.hubspot.com/guide-to-new-facebook-business-page-timelines/.

Any more tips to add? We’d love for you to share!

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