Passion for food is something a lot of people share, regardless of gender, location or cultural background. We all need to occasionally indulge our taste buds and linger in the flavors of a delightful meal, alone or in the company of others. Following that passion to get people to write and share their thoughts on food and what it means to be cooked well is bound to turn into a quite interesting social media project.

Chef and No Reservations TV show host Anthony Bourdain has had this wonderful idea of a crowdsourced library of essays on food and launched the Medium Raw Challenge. People are faced with an apparently simple, yet rather complex question – Foodies: What does it mean to cook food well?. They write their essays and post them on the challenge website and hope to win the Special Added Prize of $10,000 to the Grand Prize Winner and have their writing included in Bourdain’s latest book, Medium Raw.

Those foodies who enjoy cooking, eating and reading about food can still have a blast by browsing through submitted essays and voting their favorites. The social media challenge is powered by a vibrant Facbook community page that already has a 8,6000 user crowd around it.

Is this a smart way to promote the new book? Of course! Is it working? I’d say yes. And it’s working because Anthony Bourdain seems to be getting it. He actually reads the entries and posts comments expressing his opinion. He’s present and people don’t feel like they’re talking to some minion handling his social media presence.

The community engagement is indeed impressive and it’s easy to lose yourself while browsing through entries, especially if you enjoy food and don’t only eat stuff to keep yourself alive!

Remember when we were little and were playing and we’d somehow end up locked on the outside? The other kids would ask us: “What’s the password?” and they would not let us come in unless we guessed it? Sometimes it would go on and on cause we had no idea what the password was…Well, back then it was funny!

Protecting your media section with a password? Not funny anymore! I have ran across several websites lately that had such a marvelous strategy, but this post reminded me of it and of my needing to address the issue.

First off, why on earth would you need such a password? We’re usually talking logos, hotel photos, press releases, company overview, management and team profiles. How exactly would these be misused.

Secondly, any business needs the press, blog or social media coverage they get. And journalists, bloggers and social media users don’t have the time or urge to apply for yet another account that they might not use for more than once! Plus, if the deadline is today or tomorrow, no one will change an entire newspaper layout for you. No one will just wait in the high-seed online news world of today!

As their covering your story is something that helps you a great deal, why would you make them jump through hoops? Why would you make anyone who wants to know more about your company jump through said hoops?

As a PR specialist, I can’t find any way to explain this. If it’s to fish for email addresses, this is bad! Better create a special emailing list for the press and ask them to subscribe to it AFTER they get in the Media section of your site!

I have always had an interest in HR PR, that is the pr effort you put in to help out your Human Resources department to find the best employees and to communicate with existing staff in an effective way. When it comes to HR campaigns, it’s hard to see new stuff being pulled off. Most companies go to their overly tested job posting sites, wait for resumes to come in, then start reviewing and setting up interviews. Even the ads they post are somewhat standard and you rarely see a different approach.

That is why I’ve been so pleasantly surprised by Avira’s latest recruiting campaign. First, they have found a great way to reach potential employees. Not through job sites, but through their own product. After the update, there usually is a pop-up window letting users know what’s new at Avira – products, news, etc. The pop-up I noticed contained a job ad, and this happen a few times during several days. I thought it smart as it reached out to people who already liked the brand and if they had the required skills, would want to be part of the team that develops the product they love.

And then there was the email! Yes, an email spreading out just like jokes and funny pictures do, initially sent to Avira users. Instead of just stating what the position required in a very correct and boring fashion, they turned it into a congratulating letter send by the CEO three years from now to the person who had obtained in for doing such a fine job.

Dear Avira user,

We are conducting a search for a successful person. Rather than show you the job description we thought you’d appreciate reading the actual ad we’ve posted. It’s a bit unusual, but it tells the whole story. We think you’ll agree.Feel free to call us if you’re personally interested in discussing the position, or send it to anyone you believe might be.

Web developer (PHP/MYSQL) Back to the future

Fast Forward 3 Years

Aviras’ CEO wants to personally thank you for creating the very best website ever. In the past three years you have continuously pushed the envelope of technology to the next level by creating a website that has sustained growth from 1 to 3 million unique visitors per day within just 3 years. During this time you have accomplished the following:

1. Implemented and optimized sophisticated caching techniques which led to significant savings in hardware

2. Created a user friendly CMS system that got an outstanding acceptance by the content management team. They now prefer to work with the home grown CMS system on top of any other solution on the market.

3. Analyzed requirements regarding localized pricing and localized content and designed out of the box solutions that made this possible with a minimum impact on the resources consumption.

4. Continuously identified potential how to optimize the content and structure of the website in order to increase customer satisfaction and revenue via the website by more than 100%.

Now Back to Today

If you’d like this story to be yours, please send a resume with a brief write-up of a major accomplishment you believe is most comparable. We will get back to you shortly.

Elena Nastasa – Human Resources Manager
AVIRA Soft SRL
Email: career@avira.ro

Their campaign is smart, well planned and refreshingly different. Have you run into such unusual HR campaigns, reaching out to potential employees on other channels than the traditional ones and using unusual ads or job descriptions? If you have, please share them with us!

It is great that Michelle Obama is advising US citizens to vacation in the Gulf. There are, in the end, thousands of miles of beaches that the oil has not touched yet. Getting involved in the effort to help local communities and the overall economy while still having a blast during your vacation is something to admire. An example to set that other will follow and make sure people are stronger than the oil spilt in their waters.

“It is vacation time.  Folks are looking for things to do with their kids, and this would be a great opportunity to do a few things — help this community, send a different message about the extent of the spill, and also think long term about how the rest of the country can help this economy and the folks down here,” Mrs. Obama said at the Panama City Welcome Center.

But is this PR move still brilliant when the Obamas themselves chose to vacation elsewhere, Maine to be precise? Isn’t taking your own advise proof that you believe in what you are saying and that you are also involved and doing, not just reciting PR speeches carefully crafted for you?

Maybe there is a perfectly good reason why the US President and his family have chosen Maine’s Mount Desert Island, home of Acadia National Park. Then again it’s a weekend mini-trip and the reason why it’s not the Gulf Coast for them as well is unclear to me.

It breathes hypocrisy and actually a poor PR strategy of the White House. I am sure people who knew Michelle Obama was to speak at the at the Panama City Welcome Center cheering for Gulf Coast vacations also knew where the First Lady and her family were planning to go. Couldn’t they connect the dots?

There is a Romanian saying stating you should do what the priest says, not what he does. Maybe it should be extended to presidents and their families as well.

What do you think of all this?

Regardless of the line of business you’re in, you’re bound to run into a few customers who will put your patience and communication skills to test. Some need you to spend more time explaining what you’re doing than actually doing your job, others think they know your profession better than you do, some will take too long to respond when there’s an emergency at hand. But when it comes to public relations and nightmare customers, these are the ones we fear most.

1. The DIY customer

When something’s going on, why bother talking to the PR guy in your company or to the company you pay to handle such issues? Go ahead and make your own statements, release them and then have the people you initially ignored clean your mess. Think of the Cleavland Cavalier owner who decided a post attacking LeBron James was a good reaction to the player’s decision to choose another team.

Attacks, rushed statements, strong words powered by momentary anger, they all damage a company’s image. Once they are out, it is much harder to patch them then it is to take 5 minutes and discuss what you’re about to do beforehand.

2. The walking disaster when it comes to being spontaneous

You might be the greatest PR agency ever, you might have the best strategy in place and a nice plan to handle everything. Once your customer is in a constant spotlight, if he or she can’t handle statements made on the spur of the moment and has the habit of saying the wrong thing, you’re doomed. Think BP here and the “I want my life back” statement. While honest and heartfelt, no one cared Tony Hayward’s life was not as good anymore when others had died and many more were losing their livelihood and were bound to suffer the consequences of the oil spill for many years to come.

3. The “Do your thing, I’ll do mine” customer

While in the first case we were dealing with a customer that we knew would take PR in his/her own hands and in case two we talked about spontaneous reactions which are harder to control, our third nightmare customer is even more tricky to deal with. It’s that customer who will consult you on the matters at hand, will let you come up with a solution, strategy, plan, methods etc, will seem to agree on the best course of actions and then surprise you by doing the exact opposite. It’s that customer that you spend months with explaining how to write a proper news release to then take the next big launch and release something that goes against everything you have discussed and it is filled with mistakes so obvious even a rookie would pick up. The even better part is when your name and company are sent together with it

What about you? What do you fear most when it comes to your customers? What other scary types have you run into or heard of?

If you’ve been in the PR field for a few days, you have heard at least one journalist complaining about bad press releases saying nothing and being sent to them in an attempt to get their attention. There are quite a few articles about effective press release writing complete with ebooks and hardcover books to help you get the hang of this important task: crafting a news release that works.

No wonder there have been some harsh reactions to the latest New York Times press release that says (almost) nothing new. After bragging on a few paragraphs about how their business section is the greatest they finally throw in some bits of info about a new column being launched.

I for one cannot imagine why you need a press release to announce the world how cool your paper is. Who are you sending the release to? Would you actually expect other newspapers to say how much cooler you are? Are you trying to impress young business people looking for info and mentors? Or are you trying to get some more ads on you website and in your print version and writing a release to convince companies they should do whatever to get some editorial or advertising coverage? Whatever the reason, it still is a bit lame. It’s still pseudo-news, it’s still time wasted saying nothing…

The fact it comes from the New York Times is even worse. You’d expect more for them! If they wanted to send such a material out, they could have done so to a business newsletter list. Add a list of top 10 reasons to advertise/invest in getting editorial coverage in the New York Times and throw in a discount for orders placed in the next few days and that’s still a way better idea than the said press release.

Head over to the PR Newser website and read the entire release text (if you have the patience) and the statement of NY Times’ PR reps explaining why they have issued the release and let me know what you think about this entire affair!

As you arleady know, a while ago I debuted on Everything PR and have since become one of their regular writers. It’s been fun and challenging and I’d like to keep you updated with what I’m posting there. So I decided the best way was a monthly roundup (along with the tweets and Facebook shares that annouce my new articles). Here’s what I’ve been up to this month, hope you enjoy it!

Coca Cola’s New Social Media Model: Going for the Kill
Coca Cola has revealed its new social media model. It is called the 4P model, namely reviewing, responding, recording and redirecting. There’s nothing quite revolutionary behind the fancy naming, but it is a tested, well documented, experiment and success backed model to help them accomplish marketing and sales goals.

Vocus Launches New Social Media Monitoring Tool
Vocus has released a new and improved version of its social media monitoring software, the Summer ‘10 Edition. The new application focuses on monitoring and analyzing the massive amounts of online information spread across blogs, forums, Twitter, LinkedIn and other online communities, identify and help engage key influencers.

Vocus acquired free PR service Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
Following a recent release of their social media monitoring software, Vocus announced they had acquired Help a Reporter Out (HARO), a free service connecting bloggers and journalists with their sources, mostly small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Norton Offers Online Protection to Parents and Children from Around the World
Security expert Symantec has expanded its Norton Online Family web service to cover 25 languages and thus offers parents from around the world the possibility to set browsing rules for their children, provide them a secure online experience and teach them about Internet safety.

Google News Creator Says Journalism Is Here to Stay
Google News creator says journalism is here to stay and identified key changes bound to occur in the next five years or so. Journalistic organizations will have to adapt to new trends and channles to stay relevant to their audiences.

Small Business, Great Dedication and an Even Bigger Heart
Meet Rachelle Lucas, innkeeper, blogger in love with breakfast recipes, cooking and travel, marathon runner and fund raiser for a center researching and treating cancer in children. A powerful inspirationand a great business managing and promoting lesson to follow.

PRFrame – New PR Tool for Mozilla Firefox
A new PR addon for Mozilla Firefox has just been released by BeFrame. PRFrame is said to be a useful tool for PR experts, beginners and all those generally curious about public relations. While the actual features are not clearly defined in the release annoucements, the browser tool might show some potential.

Toy Story 3’s big hit and the adult hijack of animation movies
The weekend brought a huge success to animation movie Toy Story 3 of hit maker Pixar, with big bucks being spent on seeing it. Adults, not children, were those most happy to see the new film, coming in larger numbers than children, the intended audiece of such productions.

CNN and Larry King Announce Telethon to Help Victims of BP Oil Spill
CNN’s Larry King Live to host telethon to raise money for victims of the BP oil spill. Numerous A-listers such as Justin Bieber, Ted Danson, Cameron Diaz, Randy Jackson, Robert Redford and many more will join the Disaster in the Gulf: How You Can Help special edition. Larry King joins the lines of stars helping out or blaming BP which include Kevin Costner, James Cameron, Lady Gaga and Corn to name only a few.

Kindle and Nook start price war on e-reader market
Kindle and Nook start cutting prices and the competition gets tougher on the e-reader market. E-reader makers, the much hyped about iPad and other gadgets with e-book reading functionalities want a piece of the sales.

Google rumored to launch music service
Google is rumored to be getting ready to launch a music downloading service that will be available online and on the Android OS. Revenge at Apple for making it blocking AdMob on iPhones or just a smart business move?

Bethenny Frankel – When Personal Brands Grow Stronger than the Real Housewives shows
Real Housewives of New York star Bethenny Frankel is said to be leaving the show due to the drama surrounding the current cast and star her own, Skinny & The City, produced Real Housewives brand owner Bravo. Following a similar trend, Kate Gosseling is moving past her divorce and ex hit show ‘Jon and Kate plus 8′ to be the center of two new shows.

Malware City – Fighting the Villains of the Online World
BitDefender’s MalwareCity.com is a quite unusual business blog, mixing anime and comic strips with IT security post and news, online freebies and the fun side of the social world. It is a rather effective method to use fun to raise awareness about real threats of the virtual world and to sell their products.

PRWeb getting ready to launch new website in July
Online news distribution service PRWeb will release a new website in July featuring a fresh look and feel and new PR tools and resources to help users get more visibility and leads.

Bing Entertainment – Less Time Searching, More Enjoying
Microsoft launched a new targeted search website, Bing Entertainment, focusing on finding and enjoying everything entertainment, from music and movies to video games and TV series. Bing Entertainment focuses on gaining new users and keeping them longer on their site, while also getting more market share from rival Google.

Smart Phones Apps Drive Increase in Map usage on the US Mobile Market
Digital data measurement expert comScore released a study showing phone apps drive maps adoption and usage on the US mobile market. With a 14% share of the entire mobile market, phone maps are accessed by 33.5 million people, mostly via apps and while driving their cars.

Kellogg’s explains massive cereal recall
A couple of days after the massive recall of 28 million cereal boxes, Kellogg’s issued a press statement explaining the withdrawn products did not meet quality standards, but did not contain health threatening substances. While some consumers did experience nausea, vomiting and other such symptoms, they were caused by the off taste and smell of the cerials, not by potentially harmful components in the product or its packaging.

New Harry Potter Trailer Announces the End of Our Favorite Wizarding Adventures (Video)
A thrilling, entertaining and dark trailer to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows announces the last part of one of the most famous wizardry stories that we have been following closely for years. The final JK Rowling book of the Harry Potter series will power two movies to be released this year and in 2011.

Guest post by Ben Johnson

Have you created a logo design for your business? If not, then you have got to get one. Why? Well, because your logo design gives your business a face. If you create a good looking logo, then your business will look really good. If you create a low quality design, then you will mess up the image of your company. So, it’s your logo design that can either mess up your business image completely or give it a dazzling identity.

To give a good-looking face to your business, you need to create an attractive logo. Once you create a dazzling identity, you will be able to win the trust of your market. How? Remember, your market won’t be able to meet you personally or see you physically – They will only see your logo and try to determine how reliable you are.

So, if your business has a pretty face (logo), you will create a pretty good impression.

Now…To give your business a dazzling identity with a top quality logo design, there are several elements you need to take into consideration to make it a success. Let’s discuss them:

Make Sure the Color Scheme is Relevant to Your Business

What does it mean? Your logo represents your business, so it must have the right colors to represent your business properly. For example, if you are creating a logo for a hospital, then its color scheme will be light and sober as compared to the color scheme of the logo of an entertainment company. So, you need to keep in view your business and audience before you finalize the color scheme.

Make Sure Your Logo Clearly Depicts the Mood of Your Business

Just like color schemes, this is also a very important element of your business logo. If you are designing a logo for charity, then you must consider the mood of such organizations and contributors. It will be wrong to have a clown in such a logo. So, you need to do some research and analyze your competitors first and then determine the layout of your logo design.

Make Sure it’s Simple and Memorable

Do you think that a complicated logo will make you look more professional? This is a totally wrong perception. Complexity has nothing to do with being professional. Simplicity always rocks and simple logos are always memorable. Do you think that Nike, Toyota, Honda and Target logos are complicated? No, they are not. They are simple and attractive logos and you need something similar too.

Make Sure Your Logo is Visually Appealing

Just as flowers attract bees, your logo should attract your target market. If it doesn’t look good, will anyone take notice of it? No, everyone will ignore it. So, to grab the attention of your market, you must work hard to create a visually appealing logo.

The bottom line is that you have got to seriously consider the elements mentioned above to create an attractive and top quality logo design and give your business a dazzling identity.

About the author

Ben Johnson is the Alliance Manager at Logoinn, a custom logo design company. He writes about the effect of design on marketing and brand identity and helps small businesses find design solutions for effective marketing.

At a first and quick glance, Prova.fm does not seem to offer much more than other crowdsourced design sites. You basically are promised agency level designs for your logo, website, ads and more which also fit in your budget. The procedure is not new. You create a design contest for which you fill out a brief, set the amount you want to pay and wait for designers to submit their work. Just like in other cases of design contest sites following a similar pattern, you get more proposals than with any other agencies, you can interact with the designers and ask them to make the changes you need to pick the perfect fit.

Designers on the other hand get to showcase their work and if they are the lucky winners, they also get paid for their work. If they don’t win the contest, they can still submit their templates to a dedicated section of Prova.fm and get paid if someone else than the original company requesting the design work purchases them.

Pretty much a basic model, even if done perfectly, up to here. After spending some more time on the Prova.fm website and reading more about them on the Internet, I finally got to pinpoint what sets them apart. All contests can be promoted on various social media websites and combined with the voting system for submitted designes, companies looking for brands that work get to test them against their target audiences.

If your customers, industry peers and the media access your blog and see a post about your rebranding process, they can check the designs and provide feedback on the artwork they like best. While they are not qualified designers, they are the best critics of your logo, website or other brand-related imagery. Why? Because they are the people who need to react to it, be convinced by it and act on it!

“Where we differ is our focus. Prova focuses on effective advertisement designs. Prova’s an advertising agency, & our primary goal is to help small business owners have access to agency-quality advertisements.”
[...]understanding what your audience likes is a huge part of effective advertising,” explained entrepreneur David Gash, creator of Prova.fm, to The Next Web.

Buying the designs that attract more customers are the main target of businesses looking for effective branding strategy and it’s exactly what makes Prova.fm stand out!

People have the habit of complaining about products and services online. When the complaints are relevant and an apology is needed, company representatives often post them on the blog where the initial problem was revealed. While some are great and solve the problem while both gaining the support and admiration of the blogger in question, others fail. After looking into a few of these apologies and trying to understand where people most commonly go wrong, I have rediscovered the art of writing effective replies to people’s problems.

But before I start, if you’re wondering why you should apologize in the first place, it’s because news travels fast online, if the problem is significant, there are great chances more people will complain and all that negativity will pop up when potential customers look you up online. You shouldn’t apologize for nonsense and give credibility to shady bloggers and nonexistant issues, but when the problem is real, you need to solve it, apologize for the inconvenience and let people know it has all been taken care of.

Here are a few tips for writing apologies that will help your company and not worsen the situation instead:

1. Recognize the problem and give it due consideration

Some apologies fail because while they say the “I’m sorry”, they fail to focus on the problem and the discomfort experienced by the customer. Instead, they rush through the apology and the unpleasant situation and focus on what the customer should have done, the proper channels to report the problem and how they can solve future problems. This is all wrong because if you’re replying, it’s clear the online piece of posting has reached its goal of making the issue known. Writing an apology that says this is not the right way and you won’t do much about it makes you look bad!

Instead, show sympathy for what they went through and recognize there was a problem on your side. Don’t try to cover it up with procedure mambo-jumbo.

2. Carefully explain what’s being done to solve the problem

Make sure your reply statement focuses on what you’re doing, not what should have happened when the customer noticed the issue. You may say it’s an unusual behavior, but focus on how you’re going to fix it, not how this is not typical for your company. The person in question won’t care, and those reading or following them won’t either. They will sit quietly and wait to see how you handle it and what you plan on doing.

3. If there’s a better way to report issues, express it while showing empathy

Don’t rush into listing 5 ways in which the customer should have reported the problem. Yes, it’s important for them to know they could have solved things faster, but make this part a side note and ask them nicely to follow your procedure in the future, never try to force it on them. They need to see why they should go through the trouble of doing as you ask rather than publish an angry status on Facebook, for example. Focus on the benefits of complaining to you directly and not to the world – quicker replies, professional assistance etc.

4. If you’re offering free stuff, don’t make it look like a bribe

Some freebies might seem like a good idea for a quick getaway. But if it looks like you’re trying to buy them, it will backfire. Make it sound like what it really is: compensation for the trouble they’ve been through, for the time they’ve wasted, etc. It has to be clear that this isn’t just a way to make the problem disappear, you will still deal with it, solve it and make sure it won’t happen again.

And here comes the most important part:

5. Write it like you mean it!

You might follow all my prior suggestions and you might still fail because you can’t make the person you’re addressing feel like you really mean what you say. They need to feel you really are sorry, you realize they are pumping money into your company and that you need them, while they can choose someone else, and that you actually are going to look into the issue and get it all sorted out. The apology needs to sound personal and genuine, not a cold piece of corporate writing that gets posted as a reply to all online complaints.

Have you written or received apologies? What’s your take on the subject and which are the tips and tricks you’ve discovered?