By Caroline Nobles

As public relations professionals, so much of our job depends upon staying up on current events and news. In addition to sifting through newspapers and watching local and national TV stations, we must now regularly scan non-traditional media such as blogs, Facebook posts and Twitter feeds for the most recent coverage.

And the current hot topic? The 2012 London Olympic Games. There is a steady barrage of news concerning shattered world records, down-to-the-wire finishes, heartbreaking losses and mind-boggling wins. And all of the event news can be heard, seen or read in real-time thanks to online video streaming and social media updates. The Games were even dubbed the first ever “Social Games” as Twitter recorded 9.66 million tweets just during the Opening Ceremony.

But the trouble with having immediate Olympic results at our fingertips is that some of us still don’t want to know the outcomes until we have the chance to watch the events on television, live or taped. Most avid Olympic fans, such as myself, don’t want to find out via Twitter that Michael Phelps won gold to become the most decorated Olympian, or read on Yahoo! News that defending beach volleyball champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings historically lost their first Olympic set, but managed to dig, set and spike their way to a win. We want to see the action for ourselves.

Here are my tips to help PR professionals avoid spoilers while still staying in the loop throughout the day:

Reset your web browser

During the Olympics, no major online news outlet is safe. It’s almost impossible to avoid the Internet while trying to work during the day, but we can minimize our exposure. Avoid casual news-surfing and use a search engine, such as Google, that doesn’t list real-time news updates. And if you must visit a news outlet like USA Today or The Wall Street Journal, navigate as quickly as possible to the section or search bar you are trying to find. (I recommend holding a hand in front of the computer screen to block scrolling news updates).

Turn the dial down on talk radio

You can tempt fate by hovering over the radio dial in your car, ready to change the station at any one moment should the broadcaster start recapping the daily sporting news, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The risk of overhearing an Olympic event spoiler is too great. Instead, use your commute time to clear your head, outline your work load for the next day, listen to your new audio book, or simply plug in your iPod to eliminate all risk of spoilers.

Limit your social media intake

Twitter may be the most difficult social media outlet to shun during the Olympics. Athletes immediately post to the site to celebrate their medals or the successes of their teammates. If you must check Twitter, you can use applications like Twitter DogHouse or TweetDeck, which allow you to stop following users for a certain amount of time, or filter out words and hashtags associated with the Games.

Even Instagram isn’t safe from Olympic spoilers. The mobile phone app, which allows users to filter and post creative photos to their followers, spoils its own share of surprises for those who follow Olympic athletes. For example, Michael Phelps posted a photo of him and training partner Allison Schmitt, with their silver and bronze medals from the 4×100 freestyle relays, immediately after winning the medals – but long before coverage aired in the U.S. I recommend temporarily un-following Olympic athletes until the Games are over, or avoid the application altogether for a few weeks.

Inform others of your plan

You may do everything correctly, from driving to work without the radio in the background, to staying off Twitter and Instagram, to avoiding all online news sites that may hint at Olympic results, but if you forget to tell your co-workers, family and friends about your mission to avoid Olympic results, all your hard work may be for naught. I know firsthand the feeling of almost making it through a work day with no new Olympic updates until hearing an unknowing co-worker casually exclaim from his office, “Michael Phelps gets the record!” So post a sign outside your office door, send an office-wide email or verbally communicate with your colleagues to let them know of your plan to avoid all real-time Olympic results.

While the Social Olympics are still heating up this week, and many are following the results in real-time via traditional and non-traditional media outlets, rest assured you don’t have to be one of them. It is indeed possible for PR professionals to maintain office productivity while staying away from the daytime Olympic results. And if you falter, it’s not the end of the world. After all, you’ll have another chance to perfect how to watch (or not watch) in 2016!

Photo courtesy of Claire Dancer’s Flickr photostream.

On these long, hot summer days, my family has been playing numerous games on the porch at our lake house. Nothing involving computers or video games – we’re old school addicts for cards, checkers, Scrabble and Monopoly.

I’ve been playing Monopoly for decades, so I was deeply surprised when Peyton, my 9-year-old daughter, announced that we were not “playing by the rules.” She’d spent some time actually reading the small print Monopoly rules, and she was determined to start enforcing them. Some rules were not a big deal. There is no pot of money for whoever lands on “Free Parking.” But other rules fundamentally changed the way I had always played the game.

For example, I had understood that you can only buy a piece of property when you land on it. But that is not the rule. Any player can bid on a piece of property if the person who lands on it declines to purchase it. That dramatically alters the pace, flow and strategy of the game. It is less dependent upon luck – i.e. where the dice take you – and much more dependent upon fundamental strategies to buy, hold and sell real estate.

Let’s just say that under the new system – the legal way of playing the game – I got slaughtered by not only my 9-year-old, but my 11-year-old daughter as well. My mind couldn’t grasp the new approach, and my ability to compete under the real rules was seriously compromised!

I have thought about that lesson a lot as current events have unfolded in business and sports. When organizations ignore the rules, don’t learn the rules or deliberately bend the rules, it changes the playing field for everyone involved. It creates consequences for those who play by the rules, often to their detriment, until it’s exposed that violations are taking place.

Ten years ago, the telecommunications world was being roiled by an upstart company called Worldcom (no relation to the global public relations partnership that RLF is a part of). Worldcom was grabbing market share, offering unbelievable prices on services and hastening the demise of traditional telephone companies. I heard many stories from friends and professional colleagues of their bosses who were pounding the table asking their teams, “Why can’t we compete with Worldcom on price?” The answer was simple:  Worldcom was not playing by the rules. The Worldcom CEO is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for a $100 million accounting fraud, but the damage was done before he was ever convicted.

The list goes on – Enron, Madoff and now the Barclays LIBOR scandal. Even the Penn State scandal is reflective of an organization that benefited by not playing by the rules. Reporting the sexual abuse by a member of the coaching staff would have created negative publicity detrimental to the football program, so the rules of reporting illegal, unethical and immoral activities were ignored. That created an unfair playing field for the colleges and universities that competed with Penn State for players and coaches, and now the consequences of not playing by the rules are far more severe and damaging than if the issues had been addressed in the beginning. More importantly, it allowed the unconscionable abuse of young boys to continue.

It’s the job of communications professionals – whether in-house or agency consultants – to consistently advocate for organizations to understand, interpret and play by the rules. There is still plenty of room for flexibility and creativity. It would be boring, and career threatening, if we lived in a world that gave us no options in defining the meaning of things. But if companies have to play by the rules, the world looks very different. It is more transparent and rewarding of merit, hard work and skill. It operates more efficiently, sustainably and fairly. Perhaps it’s my Boy Scout training talking, but that is the kind of world I enjoy competing in.

Photo courtesy of PT Money’s Flickr photostream.

Buzz. Click. Ping.

How many times in the last hour have you heard your smartphone vibrate, your email ping or or one of your social media sites sound an alert? Probably more times than you can count. And you’re not alone.

CNN reported a study that showed smartphone owners check their phones for email, messages and social media notifications 34 times a day. That’s in addition to time spent on computers checking email, Websites and the like.

This frequent communication is great for staying in touch with friends and family, but the volume of communication has made media pitching tougher for PR pros. Journalists, like everyone else, are becoming better at tuning out inbound communications – including media pitches. You can imagine how an inbox packed with pitches could have that effect.

So how can we break through this? Below are four tips for breaking free from the crowd and getting the attention of journalists.

Check your watch

Since a reporter’s email inbox is constantly flooded with story ideas, it’s crucial to optimize when you pitch yours. For example, you should avoid pitching at the end of the work day or sending out a press release on a Friday afternoon. Choosing the right time to pitch a story or send a news release can reduce the odds of getting lost in an overcrowded inbox.

Do your research

Many publications post editorial calendars online. Getting to know the schedule for each outlet you’re researching will boost pitching success rate. Targeting a weekly business journal? Most hit the stands on Friday but go to print on Wednesday – meaning Tuesday nights or Wednesday mornings are terrible times to pitch. Reporters and editors at monthly publications will tend to be busier certain weeks of each month, depending on when exactly they go to press. Get to know these cycles and reach out to journalists when they are less stressed and have the time to concentrate and read through your pitch.

Be creative

Today we must be creative in how we approach journalists. For example, a PR professional recently sent an editor at Fast Company magazine a Twitter video pitch that landed her a coffee meeting. The request was eye-catching and unusual. Creativity can help break through the chatter and impress journalists who are used to seeing uninspired pitches all day long.

Find your perfect match

Generic media lists don’t make the cut anymore. Naturally, not every story will be newsworthy for every media outlet, but assuming there is some real news value to your pitch, I can practically guarantee that somewhere there’s a journalist or publication that will be interested. The more research you do on reporters (what stories they’ve covered, their beats, what they are sharing on their Twitter accounts, etc.), the closer you can get to making a connection and following up on a story. Personalizing your pitches for specific journalists helps considerably in breaking through the clutter and earning a story.

In the endless stream of emails, tweets, status updates and blog posts, PR professionals must work harder and smarter than ever before. The pitch that’s the most relevant, targeted and personal wins. So before you reach for your smartphone, send an email or share a social media update, make sure you’re using the right form of communication. Personalization isn’t a luxury anymore; it’s a necessity.

Photo courtesy of  Ian Lamont via  www.digitalmediamachine.com.

Last month, Fortune magazine released its annual Fortune 1000 list. In addition to the expected oil giants, commercial banks and big-box retailers, this year’s list features an eclectic group of newcomers that do everything from brewing coffee to baking bread to helping you be healthier.

What do they have in common? They’ve invested in – and profited from – figuring out how to personalize and customize their offerings for individuals.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (No. 766 and probably best known as the owners of Keurig) saw sales nearly double from 2010 to 2011. They deliver value in single-cup serving machines that bring the coffee-house variety into your kitchen. You and your spouse no longer have to agree on the type of coffee you want to drink in the morning.

Panera Bread (No. 971) offers the “You Pick Two” option (as shown in the picture on the right), which allows customers to select from hundreds of combinations of soups, salads and sandwiches.

Weight Watchers (which weighed in at No. 973) gives its customers daily personalized “PointsPlus” programs that allow individuals to tailor a weight loss/meal plan to their needs. In response to consumer feedback, Weight Watchers overhauled its Points system in 2010 and now offers more flexibility with PointsPlus.

The success of these personalization-centric companies demonstrates the billion-dollar impact that customization can have.

There are many ways companies can, and should, personalize their public relations and marketing communications. Here are five suggestions:

Customize pitches to journalists and bloggers. The days of “spray and pray” mass pitches are (thankfully) coming to an end. Now, proper pitching includes researching what individuals have written about recently, what they’re saying publicly on social media networks such as Twitter, and the requests for sources they put out on email lists such as HARO and Profnet. Technology and social media make it easier than ever to write stronger, more targeted pitches.

Personally thank customers for their business. According to Forbes, only 21 percent of stores personalize thank-you notes after an online purchase and only 5 percent personalize thank-yous after an in-store purchase.

Monitor social media and online forums for user feedback and respond to each user for better quality customer service. Social media allows companies to identify and solve customer service problems early in the process. A speedy response can turn a negative into a positive.

Design websites to be phone and tablet-friendly. Not only are people likely looking at your website on a smaller screen via a potentially slower cellular connection, they’re making judgments and taking action (or not taking action) based on what they see. So, websites coded to be just as accessible and user-friendly on a small screen are now a necessity.

Create targeted website content and LinkedIn company pages. LinkedIn has a targeting feature that will allow the information on a company page to target individual audiences (here’s how). Develop websites with special pages geared towards individual audiences.

What are some of your favorite tips for helping customers personally connect with your company?

Photo courtesy of Shannon Abigail Simbulan’s Flickr photostream.

RLF is excited to have four interns with us for the summer. And our final spotlight for the week is on Gretchen!

Gretchen Cundiff

I am from Richmond, Va. and will be a senior at Elon University this fall.  Since my freshman year at Elon, I found my passion to be in public relations and decided to major in strategic communications, and minor in international studies and leadership studies.

What is your dream job?

Account Executive at a top, full-service communications firm that incorporates both public relations and advertising.

 What do you do when you aren’t at RLF?

I have stayed busy this summer taking an online advertising course and caring for an elderly lady and her dog. I also work in the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement at Elon as a media coordinator. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with friends, running, reading, watching romantic comedies and traveling around North Carolina.

What is a fun fact about you?

One of my great, great grandmothers was one of the original Radio City Rockettes.

What is your favorite book?

My favorite book is The Help, and I enjoyed the movie adaptation, as well.

If you could go out to lunch every day, where would it be?

I would go to Panera; I love the fresh-baked breads, hearty soups, flavorful salads and tasty smoothies.

What is your favorite part of being an intern at RLF so far?

So far, my RLF experience has been eye-opening as I have never been exposed to an agency setting before, and I look forward to enhancing my communication skills. I love the enthusiasm, positive work atmosphere and support system that the RLF team displays, and I feel very welcome in the office as an intern.

To apply for an internship at RLF, please send cover letters, resumes and writing samples to interns@rlfcommunications.com.

We have four exceptional interns at RLF this summer. And today our spotlight is on Laura!

Laura Van Drie

I am going to be a junior at Elon University. I come from Andover, MA and am studying strategic communications with a minor in sociology.

What is your dream job?

Copywriter for a PR or advertising agency.

What do you do when you aren’t at RLF?

I also work as a tour guide for Elon Admissions. In my free time, I’m usually attempting to learn how to cook, watching the Bachelorette or Pretty Little Liars, reading or hanging out with friends.

What is a fun fact about you?

I spent January traveling through India! I’m also preparing to spend next semester in Copenhagen – I love to travel.

What is your favorite book?

I like almost everything I read… Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is one of my favorites.

If you could go out to lunch every day, where would it be?

Simply Thai, right down the street from Elon. I love Asian food, and most of their dishes are gluten-free (which I need).

What is your favorite part of being an intern at RLF so far?

I love the creative projects that I get to do. I’ve brainstormed story ideas, researched how restaurants market themselves on Pinterest (yum), and written some pitches. It’s also a great work environment – everyone is so friendly!

Follow Laura online at lauravandrie.wordpress.com.

To apply for an internship at RLF, please send cover letters, resumes and writing samples to interns@rlfcommunications.com.

RLF welcomes four interns to the office this summer. And today the spotlight is on Adam!

Adam Bowers

I am a senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  I am majoring in public relations and am working on a minor in geography. I come from Rocky Mount, NC (which, contrary to popular belief, is not in the mountains).

What is your dream job?

Tie between (a) doing PR for Coca Cola and (b) being a product tester at a toy company (but inexplicably getting paid a decent salary despite that my sole responsibility would be to play with toys all day).

 What do you do when you aren’t at RLF?

When not at RLF, I spend my time reading, playing disc golf and hanging out with my soft-coated wheaten terrier, Solomon.

 What is a fun fact about you?

I avoid eating at restaurants that serve Pepsi products.

 What is your favorite book?

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis.

 If you could go out to lunch every day, where would it be?

Chipotle Mexican Grill. It’s the best way to get all the calories you need for an entire month in one convenient burrito.

What is your favorite part of being an intern at RLF so far?

Interning at RLF has shown me that I not only enjoy the theory of public relations, but the practice as well.  In school, we learn all about the theory, but there’s a world of difference between the theory and practice.  At RLF, I’ve really gotten to see what the practice is like.  During my first week, I got to write, pitch and distribute a press release (and I loved it).

To apply for an internship at RLF, please send cover letters, resumes and writing samples to interns@rlfcommunications.com.

At RLF, we are proud to offer a fulfilling and versatile internship program during the spring, summer and fall for 12 interns a year. Our summer internship program includes a one-day intern bootcamp to learn tips for best practices from our team. Topics include media relations, crisis communications, branding, advertising, new media and investor relations.

This summer, we welcome four enthusiastic interns to our office:  Gretchen Cundiff, Adam Bowers, Hannah Nelson and Laura Van Drie. Let’s first meet Hannah!

Hannah Nelson

I am a rising senior at Elon University. I come from Silver Spring, Md (just north of DC), but I’ve fallen in love with the southern pace of life and can’t wait to settle here. I am majoring in strategic communications with minors in business administration and German studies.

What is your dream job?

Social media strategist/trend analyst for Fortune 500 companies.

What do you do when you aren’t at RLF?

At home, my family is an avid sailing bunch on the Bay. I’ve taught sailing camp in DC for many summers and feel most at home on the water.  This summer, I’m working part time at Elon’s library and finishing up a research article.

What is a fun fact about you?

I won a dance competition while I was abroad in Germany, but I couldn’t understand the person on the phone telling me exactly what I had won!

What is your favorite book?

The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks (but I really love any book written by him)!

If you could go out to lunch every day, where would it be?

Chipotle! I can’t get enough and usually make the trek from Elon to Greensboro just for those wonderfully huge burritos!

What is your favorite part of being an intern at RLF so far?

All of the responsibility and trust that is placed on us. My first task on my first day was to write a pitch letter. They believe in me, so I push myself to exceed my potential and gain experience!

Follow Hannah online at @Hannah_Bernice or HannahBernice.com.

Stay tuned the rest of the week to meet our other three summer interns!

To apply for an internship at RLF, please send cover letters, resumes and writing samples to interns@rlfcommunications.com.

My partner Robb and I recently adopted our fourth rescue Doberman, Eli. He’s two-and-a-half-years’ old, so we knew that among our daily responsibilities we’d be adding vigorous exercise to expend puppy energy, plus a training regimen. But we didn’t immediately pick up on anxiety issues that caused him to be hyper-protective and aggressive. A few days after we brought him home, he nailed Robb.

The agreement with the rescue organization was that, in the event of a bite, he had to be returned and quarantined for 10 days. And, as he was a rescue, he couldn’t be adopted by anyone else.

As we were struggling with whether to take him back, we received great counseling from a noted veterinary behaviorist. She gave us a specific training protocol to make Eli calmer and help him trust and defer to us as the alpha members of his pack, while allowing him to do the job for which his breed was created—vigilance and protection. Part of the training is acknowledging his alerts to perceived threats, but then stepping in: “You can relax and be confident that I’ve got this situation.”

What does this mean for clients?

I’ve drawn several parallels to this experience and our interaction with clients. Like the behaviorist, we aspire to be the experts to whom clients turn for counsel. But that doesn’t mean we demand attention or take control. Just as the behaviorist instructed us, our goal is to command trust and confidence. We may be award-winning creatives, Pulitzer Prize-worthy writers or supreme strategists, but if we lack the client’s trust and confidence in more than our output, none of those capabilities will ever contribute to a long-standing relationship and real, meaningful results.

Technical proficiencies are table stakes; every client expects and deserves the very best in execution and implementation. But technical proficiency alone engenders only confidence in the work product. It is RLF’s culture that the sort of deep trust and confidence I’m talking about comes from being truly invested in the client’s business, acting as if it were our own.

How do we do that? We foster partnership. We favor being forward-thinking and proactive, rather than maintaining the status quo or, worse, being reactive. And we’re there when they need us around the clock, on weekends and holidays. Clients benefit from having much more than a responsive, capable vendor; they have expert counsel invested in their success.

I’m happy to report that based on our trust and confidence in the expert—and in ourselves—we took Eli back. We’ve got a lot of work yet ahead, but his trust and confidence in us is growing. I believe if we maintain our commitment to create the same relationship with every client, we’ll be as we hope for Eli: vigilant, protective and effective for the long term.

I had been a mom for a little more than three years when I made the career switch from reporting to PR. Now, 18 months later, I realize that many of the skills I need to fill my role as “Mommy” to a very precocious and adorable daughter are also beneficial in my job.

While I am sure that many of my parenting skills help me at work (and vice versa), here are five of the most significant:

Juggling many tasks

One of the first things any new mom learns is how to do multiple things at the same time. Feeding a baby while brushing your teeth, sorting the laundry and checking email  – no problem! Now that my daughter is older, juggling often involves keeping her entertained while cooking dinner and making sure her soccer uniform is ready for that evening’s game (and checking email of course).

In PR, we often have that same need to balance various tasks while doing them all well. Our clients often have different needs and priorities and it is essential that we can move seamlessly from pitching the media about one client to monitoring social media for another, while responding to urgent emails from a third.

Reacting quickly in a crisis

As a parent, I often need to respond quickly to the crisis du jour, either real or imagined. That means finding the right solution for the problem – from healing a scrape with a band-aid and a kiss, or hiding invisible monster traps at night to help my daughter fall asleep.

While the challenges are quite different, working in PR requires that same ability. Whether it’s bad publicity, potential legal problems or a tough legislative environment, my job is to think quickly and creatively to generate the best possible outcome for my client.

Working 24/7

It’s no secret among parents that once the baby is born, the good night’s sleep is gone. It may be staying up all night with a crying infant, taking care of a sick preschooler or worrying about a teenager, but parenting is a 24-hour a day job. And while you may not always like the hours, you accept them as the nature of the job.

The same can be said of PR. I have needed to catch pre-dawn flights for early client meetings, stayed up late to meet a deadline, and dealt with a client crisis on a Friday night.  When you take on the job, you accept that it will not always be strictly from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Being flexible

While never knowing exactly what the day will hold is one of my favorite things about both being a mom and working in PR, it also requires some flexibility in scheduling and an acceptance that everything on the day’s to-do list may not get done.

Before becoming a mom, I was definitely a planner. While I still have that tendency, I am now more comfortable with going with the flow. Otherwise, I might risk missing a last-minute opportunity to secure some great media coverage for my client or a special moment of blowing dandelion fluff and making wishes with my daughter.

Answering tough questions

Like many preschoolers, my daughter is very inquisitive and we have definitely hit the stage of the “Why” question, which on any given day can run the gamut from “Why do some people have brown hair and some people have blonde hair?” to “Why is ice cream cold?” I have to be prepared with an honest, easy to understand answer, no matter what the question.

Similarly, in PR, I am often asked tough questions – from clients seeking more information before making a decision to journalists weighing whether to use a client as a source. I must respond as openly and honestly as possible, providing them with the information they need in a timely manner.

As my daughter gets older, and her needs, wants and interests change (I anticipate that the teenage years will bring on a whole new set of challenges), I expect to gain even more skills and insight that will help me to both grow as a mom and succeed professionally. But for now, I am prepared to keep juggling multiple tasks, reacting to crises and answering tough questions – at home and at work. Are you prepared?