Toyota just can’t seem to get it right.  And every PR flack worth his or her salt knows it.

Toyota was slow to respond to initial reports of uncontrolled acceleration in some of its vehicles.  Their corporate suits have been defensive in both media interviews and Congressional testimony.  And, worst of all, they have been less than sympathetic to the victims of the malfunctions.

Taking these three major gaffes together, Toyota has struck out when it comes to maintaining public trust.  And it looks like they’ve forgotten one of life’s great lessons: You never have a second chance to make a first impression.

That’s particularly true in a crisis.

Having advised a number of Fortune 500 companies through headline-grabbing crises, I know that navigating the bright lights of public scrutiny is hard work.  It’s also an inexact science where even the best-intentioned can stumble.  However, over the years, I’ve developed a few key rules that must be followed – including, by the way, giving the PR folks an equal seat at the table as soon as a nightmare strikes.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works in many companies.  The typical first response of some corporate leaders and the lawyers that advise them is to say little, admit nothing and define the problem as isolated and not systemic.  That’s okay if the problem is isolated.  If not…well, just ask Toyota.

And Toyota, if you’re listening, here’s what the folks in your PR shop would like to say if they could just get a seat at your boardroom table:

Rule #1: Express sympathy. Sympathy for the problem, sympathy for the victims.  (And, no, expressing sympathy is not the same as admitting guilt or responsibility…it’s just a gracious and expected human response.)

Rule #2: Move quickly. Move quickly to meet victims’ needs.  Move quickly to provide solutions…or explain why solutions may take longer.  And move quickly to be transparent in the reporting of progress.  (I know it’s overused, but think Tylenol.)

Rule #3: Be consistent on facts and message. The day after a Toyota Prius driver accelerated to 94 mph on a California freeway, a Toyota spokesman was quoted in broadly distributed wire story that the company would soon be issuing a recall on the Prius. He also said the recall was delayed because a remedy had not yet been developed.  On the same day, however, Toyota posted a response on its web site calling the wire story inaccurate.  The response further said the Prius recall was issued last November…and it said that a remedy is available.

Huh?  Which is it?  Recalled or not recalled?  Are solutions available or are they still working on it?

Toyota engineering has been the envy of the auto world; great cars that maintain their value over the long-term.  The question is: will the company pay as much attention to their reputation and PR strategy as they have to building cars.  The future of their company hangs in the balance.

Adam Hollingsworth has spent nearly 20 years developing communications strategies in both the public and private sectors.  He currently works for the mayor of one of Florida’s largest cities.

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Here's a shot of Team Newman in the wild at SXSW 2007. Many thanks to Joe Flood for the documentation.

This is the first year since 2006 that one or both members of Team Newman are not making an appearance at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi), the geek conference in Austin, TX.

It’s not that we haven’t loved it. Our SX adventures of yore enabled us to be among the first to try Twitter, discover Ze Frank, meet our good friend Joe Flood and give Gowalla a go. It also did wonders for our sticker collection. But after AT&T’s Great Network Failure of 2009, and attending one-too-many Twitter panels, we’re taking a break.

We wish many a Chris Brogan and Guy Kawasaki sighting, much fabulous swag and free beer to those thousands of social media guinea pigs in attendance. Have fun and consume tons of Stubbs BBQ for us!

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I’ve been in DC nearly a year and have learned that, much like my home town of Nashville, you never know who you’ll run into at any given moment and what that person may mean to your career.

That gal–the one who just asked for your business card, but you told her you didn’t have one–might be your future boss. Rather, she might have been your future boss, but she doesn’t have your number.

There’s a movement around town that I’m happy to see: recent grads,  laid-off folks, freelance PR pros and/or people like me who work for a company that understandably doesn’t want us mixing business with pleasure, are creating personal business cards.

Most folks’ cards are designed and ordered at places like Moo.com. If you’re me, you’ve got a talented hubby who designed them for you. Either way, this mini, paper you should communicate:

• your name
• your email
• your Twitter handle (if you actually use and are proud of this account)
• your (industry relevant) blog
• if not your blog, your LinkedIn profile
• your phone number
• a description of your skill set

Let me talk about that last one for a minute. On my card it says “Margie M. Newman, PR Flack | Writer | Geek.” This way, you know what I do AND how to contact me. This one is very important. Maybe your card will say “Web guy” or “Wordpress tinker-er” or “communications specialist” or “writer/editor.”  Just be sure it is accurate.

Once you’ve got personal business cards in tow, when you walk into a bar, hockey game or Wholefoods, you’ll be ready for any close encounter with the employing kind.

{This guest post comes from Joe Flood, who recently taught you how to make your blog look good on the iPhone. Today, Joe explains how to promote your cause and get results by playing nice with others.}

The DC Shorts Film Festival has rapidly grown to be one of the best short film festivals in the country.

I’ve volunteered with the festival for more than five years as a judge, screenplay competition manager, photographer and even sold t-shirts. With this front row seat, I’ve gotten to see what works – lessons for anyone promoting a product or cause.

Quality: DC Shorts has a commitment to quality that’s a reflection of the festival’s founder, Jon Gann. DC Shorts books top venues, like E Street Cinema. Marketing materials, from the web site to brochures, are professionally designed and branded. Great sponsors are wooed, such as Stella Artois and Clyde’s. The films and screenplays for the festival are selected by a rigorous judging process.

Ego: It takes a healthy ego to start and run your own film festival. You must convince filmmakers to submit their films, audience members to attend, theater owners that you’ll pack the seats. You must also make countless decisions – when the festival will be held, what the rules are, who the judges will be, what food will be served at the party.

Generosity: If your film gets into the festival and you need a place to stay, DC Shorts will put you up at a volunteer’s home. Winning films receive generous prizes. All films submitted get feedback from the judges. Moviemaker magazine named it “one of 25 festivals worth an entry fee.” This generosity encourages filmmakers to submit their films. And good films attract audiences.

Authenticity: The festival is a local enterprise, fueled by the passion of film fans in DC. Unlike other festivals, regular folks (not critics or producers) are film judges and winners are decided by popular vote – there’s nothing mysterious about the process.

Managing People: There will be problems with people, in any large event or project. Volunteers won’t show up, directors will be mad that they weren’t accepted, filmmakers will worry about when their film is scheduled, audience members will be offended, judges will badmouth you, drunks will need to be ejected – it’s all happened. There may not be good solutions to any of these problems but they have to be confronted and resolved.

Running a successful film festival is a major enterprise, one that holds numerous lessons for marketing and PR folks. Come see for yourself September 9-16 when DC Shorts returns. Volunteers are always needed and it’s not too late to submit a short script or film to the festival.

Joe Flood is a writer, photographer and web person. He’s written articles, short stories, an award-winning screenplay and recently published his first novel, Murder in Ocean Hall. Learn more at joeflood.com.

Yep. Another post about how you folks are too humble. Well, you are. Look, I’m not asking you to declare you are God’s gift to public relations. I’d just like you to admit you’re great at what you do and then give me an example or two.

Unless, of course, you’re not great at what you do, which is what the majority of your resumes tell me. They scream mediocrity. And you ain’t mediocre, so why is the paper version of you communicating that?

Each week, I receive a handful of resumes from strangers who find me through friends and the Internet. They ask me to read over them and give feedback, and I do. But I can’t help but think, “Is this really all you think you do? Because if you thought your boss thought that, you’d slap her. Is the fact that you didn’t include any successes on your resume mean that you didn’t have any?” I think not. But how would I know?

So I send back my edits and suggestions, but what I really want to say is this:

If you aren’t prepared to explain why you are fabulous, don’t bother asking a hiring manager to become your biggest fan.

It’s not fair, honestly. From an early age, we are taught to be  total team players; that bragging on your own accomplishments is a sin; that the best things come to those who wait, etc.

Why do I want you on “the team” if you can’t tell me/prove what your batting average is? You don’t have to tattoo it to your forehead, but you should track and be able to clearly communicate your talents and accomplishments. On paper and in person. You’re a professional communicator for Pete’s sake!

So, get out that resume and give your past and current job responsibilities and accomplishments a makeover. If it makes you feel better, pretend your writing the resume of a client. Either way, just do it! And sure, I’m happy to give it a read. But don’t get your feelings hurt if I write back and tell you you’re too humble.

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The rise of the Internet and the struggles of print journalism in recent years have made opinion – your opinion – more valuable than ever. Some of the most influential websites such as Slate and the Huffington Post rely heavily on opinion for their broad appeal.  And newspapers, seeking to cut budgets wherever they can, have stopped publishing many syndicated columnists.

Yet newspapers have to fill those pages with some form of commentary. Therein lies the opportunity. You  don’t have to be George Will or Maureen Dowd to get published. Just don’t expect to get paid, since most newspapers pay little or nothing, And remember,  whether your target is my former employer, The New York Times, or the Laramie Boomerang,  you still have to say something interesting. So here are a few pointers to get your pearls in print:

Think like an editor. Put self-interest aside for a minute. Why would anyone want to publish your piece? Who cares? What’s the most interesting point you want to make – in the most interesting possible way? How current is your topic? Editors like news hooks. They also like pieces that are free of jargon, and 700 words or less — anything longer and it may not even be read.

Consider the angle. The angle of your piece needs broad appeal. But if you can hook it around an anniversary or a major holiday, so much the better. Editors are always on the prowl for piece they can set aside for those long holiday weekends, when they know there will be a lot of pages to fill.

Your lede matters. If your lede (the first sentence or two in the commentary) doesn’t grab an editor right away, chances are that it won’t go far. The punchier your lede, the better. For inspiration, read reviews. Years ago, when the Reader’s Digest came out with a condensed version of the Bible, the Washington Post published a book review that began, “In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was too long.”  Who could resist reading on?

Opinion isn’t enough. Research is critical to bolster your point. So is rewriting. The first draft should almost never be your last.

Don’t forget the walk-off. The last line might not matter as much as the lede. But it merits attention, if only to reward those loyal readers who have stayed with you until the end.

Once the writing is done comes a difficult moment for many people – contacting the right editor to get your piece in print. Trust me: With a few pointers, it isn’t as hard as you think. But we’ll cover that in the next post. Stay tuned!

Maura Casey spent 26 years at four newspapers writing columns, editorials and editing oped pages. She is a former editorial writer for The New York Times and now owns the communications firm of CaseyInk, LLC (www.caseyink.com). E-mail her at maura@caseyink.com

{Today’s guest post comes from my hubby and Web guy, Dave Newman, who shares three things PR folks should know (and practice) if you want to get your arms around the Internet.}

1. Stop trying to control where your message lives. The biggest mistake we can make concerning putting our stuff on the web is trying to rebuild what’s already working. Let’s use video as an example. YouTube has WAY more hits and searches than your site is ever going to have; they know how to deal with traffic and streaming rates; their file hosting is free and putting your video there improves your search ranking. Why would you ever try to do it another way? This guy agrees.

2. Always try the new free social network/web tool/app. I know, there are a million new apps out there every week vying for our attention and begging us to upload our fun little pictures to. How do you keep up and how do you know which to try? It’s easy. Try all of them that either you are interested in or your friends/clients/enemies are interested in. You never know what will catch on but signing up for all of them – even if just to try them – will never hurt your search ranking, exposure or how knowledgeable you’ll seem to your clients and friends.

My simple advice would be to sign up, skip the newsletters, and give it a quick run through to see if it does what you think. Then do a couple of searches to see if there are enough relevant answers/people/topics there to make it a useful resource. Then use it or ditch it. If it comes back around later – like Twitter did – you’ll have already staked your claim and not feel like such a noob when it hits the big time. Best place to find out about new stuff like that: Mashable or Techcrunch. They have RSS feeds, which brings us to the third strategy…

3. Fatten up your RSS reader. This is not about the tools you use but about how you use them. I love Google Reader. It stays synced wherever I go – whether I’m reading on my phone, in a browser, through an iPhone app, whatever – I have the same read and unread items wherever I am. That keeps me organized and not wondering if I’ve heard of this social network before (because I may have read it this morning).

The key to using RSS is to subscribe to too many things and filter out the ones you don’t care about. Don’t be stingy – subscribe to anything and everything you like and anything you don’t like. It’s FREE (unless you’re on a Kindle) and instead of clicking from one site to another all day to read the news, it’s all on one “page” so your boss won’t know you’ve been surfing for three hours (and if you’re really paranoid about that you can even read RSS feeds in Excel. Another great feature of Google Reader: it ties into Buzz and you can post interesting items to your Twitter account using more free tools.

The bottom line: use free stuff. It’s good for your wallet, good for your clients and good for expanding your knowledge.

Dave Newman is the reigning Extreme Flyweight Tea-cup Poodle Wrestling Champion of the World and a webguy married to a PR professional. His work site is here and his play site is here. He posts all of his interesting Google Reader links via Twitter (@groovysoup). You should, too.

I like talking to strangers. Dave and I moved to DC last May. I was new to this city and needed a way to meet my fellow public relations and public affairs pros. So, I declared a happy hour and folks actually showed up. At first, there were just a handful of us. Then Twitter word-of-mouth took over; we had 40 folks in January and nearly 60 in February. Out of my purely selfish desire to meet new folks, DC Flacks was born. If you like talking to strangers, you’re gonna do great as a ___ Flacks host/hostess.

I heart Meetup.com. I had accompanied Dave on various adventures of the Nashville Photography Meetup that he founded back in 2006, so I was familiar with the concept. You don’t have to use Meetup to organize your happy hour, of course, but if you want to, here’s how:

• Make sure you’re not recreating the wheel–do a good search to ensure Nashville Flacks, Jacksonville Flacks, Chicago Flacks, etc don’t already, in theory, exist.
• Create an account–think of a name (it’s totally fine for you to use the DC Flacks format), pick a background color and get out your credit card. Meetup charges an annual fee. You can solicit sponsors later, but you’ve gotta pony up the cash on the front end.
• Set the tone–DC Flacks is successful because there’s no pressure. You show up or you don’t. There’s no program, no sign-in sheets, no business card bowl. You just slap on a name tag and order a brew. No big whoop.
• Pick a location, time and date for your first happy hour–this is the exciting part! Just don’t forget to check events calendars in your town to ensure you aren’t booking your event on the same night as hockey/NBA/football/Disney on Ice/U2 concert. Learned that one the hard way. Also, you want a location that is not going to charge you an alcohol minimum or room fee. This needs to be a no-pressure thing for your guests AND you. Oh, and be sure to book your next happy hour soon after your successful event to take advantage of the after-glow. DC Flacks meets monthly.

I let the flacks do the talking. To build momentum for your group, you’re gonna have to promote the heck out of it. I’ve blogged, Tweeted and Facebooked about DC Flacks religiously. It also has it’s own Twitter hashtag, #dcflacks, a Twitter list and a LinkedIn group. The fun part is that after a while, folks started carrying the promotional load with me. They may not always refer to DC Flacks correctly or cite its proper origins, but at least they’re talking about it. The same will happen for you, so resist the urge to correct them or get too greedy with name recognition. The point is getting folks to show up, not collect kudos.

Hope this (rather long) tutorial helps! Please don’t hesitate to shoot me a note if you need assistance or encouragement. Email me at Margie (at) Flackrabbit (dot) com.

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Having a geek in your corner will increase your confidence and teach you a thing or two. If you don’t have someone to turn to for your slightly-intimidating social media and technology issues, find one. Among other things, your go-to-geek will:

• Encourage you to be your own guinea pig
Avoid the geeks that call themselves “gurus.” You don’t need a spiritual leader; you need the guidance of a tech-savvy person who encourages you to try your hand at social media, blogging, and good email etiquette. Through your relationship with this geek, you should begin to see in yourself increased confidence when talking about and using new media, not a gal who is rendered dependent on some secret geek sauce.

• Prevent you from breaking the law
Speaking of email etiquette, your go-to geek will not hesitate to read you the riot act when it comes to spammy, mass-email campaigns. It’s not only because they hate unsolicited email; when you commit this stunningly horrific faux pas, you’re actually violating federal law via the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM Act. Worse, people will view you as an amateur.

I hope you’ll read the full column over at HerNashville.com. A complete archive of my Chic Geek columns lives here.

Momentum is the secret ingredient in any successful promotional effort, be it one you’re doing for yourself or on behalf of someone paying you. I say  it’s a “secret” because your to-do list likely doesn’t say “build momentum” anywhere on it, but that’s what you’re actually doing when you embark on a series of public events and actions.

Without momentum, folks ain’t buying your book/running your story/hiring you/voting for you/attending your event. That’s why sending out one press release and calling it a day doesn’t get you much. You’ve got to have a strategy in place to keep the public talking about you. You know you’re succeeding when one day someone looks around and says, “Good grief! That person/candidate/idea/innovation is everywhere!”

I have a friend who is doing his own PR for his new book. Every time I harp on him about the importance of creating a sense of momentum around his creation, he looks at me like I’m nuts.

Me: “Your Website, copy, launch event, signings and interviews should communicate that you are kind of a big deal.”

Him: “I’m kind of a big deal. It’s hard when you’re talking about yourself to communicate that.”

Me: “If you aren’t willing to say what you’ve done/who you are is AMAZING, no one else is going to either. And this is why folks hire PR folks. We’ll brag on you all day long.”

The importance of momentum is often cited in politics. Pundits will debate who has or is losing momentum for hours–even through commercial breaks. Why folks don’t weigh momentum as heavily in PR is beyond me.

It’s sort of how we roll in America. We like being a part of a movement, be it American Idol, Twitter or the Harry Potter series. Successful ideas in this country pick up steam and barrel down hill. We tend to ride that train for as long as it will carry us. Or until it does something stupid. Or patently offensive.

If you’re going to do your own PR, I applaud you! But you’re going to have to put away your humble hat. People don’t just wake up one day and think you’re fabulous, you have to tell them you are.