Keep your eyes posted for new guest blogs in the coming weeks and AZPRC is also starting a speaker series covering a variety of topics from Valley professionals including:

• Vlogging
• SEO Tactics
• New Media
• Google Analytics
• Copywriting

Any many more to come! Remember, the point of our monthly group meetings are to share knowledge and learn from each other! Hope to see you all at our next event August 17th at Echo Coffee.

If you have any questions you can DM me @sgeiger27!

AHRQ.com

Yesterday, was hopefully a happy day with your Dad or loved ones, but if you were one of the many watching TV last night you might have seen this PSA .

A realtor closing on a new house says to the family  ”I’m sure you’ll have many happy years here, Except for you (dad) because you’ll be gone three years from now. Struck down by the same disease that got your father,” the family just stares awestruck.

The new ads made by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) hope to get more men to the doctor for treatable diseases.  We are not new to shocking ads, but have these ads gone to far by putting a damper on a usually blissful holiday? OR do the ads use the popular holiday to its advantage to hopefully  get dads to the doc?

-Mags

Philanthropy: voluntary promotion to benefit human welfare.

Face it, we all have a cause we support. All throughout school your counselors, teachers, mentors encourage you to give back to the community. Even in the professional world, we use our free time to help others, whether it is for a resume booster or ego push. I was shocked to find out from the Phoenix Business Journal this week that volunteering is down in Arizona, but up in the rest of the country. We have so many great organizations around the valley, how can this be possible? According to the Corporation for National and Community Service,  in 2009 around 25% of Valley residents volunteer an average of 34.5 hours of their time annually through a formal organization. In general, Arizona ranks about 44th-45th in the nation for volunteer rate.

Volunteering can be categorized in several ways; unpaid internship, participation on a committee for a professional organization, or a nonprofit. As I look back at my calendar the last year, I have involved myself with all three! I think it has helped me make connections in this tiny little pond we call Phoenix.

I would think with the  high unemployment rate, more people would find salvation in volunteering? So, people are volunteering less when they have more time to give? Strange conundrum.

So stop reading this and go out to your favorite community organization and give back! AZPRC donates a few hours a week to socialize the animals up for adoption at the Arizona Animal Welfare league in Phoenix, great organization if you ask me! Volunteer Orientation is the second Saturday of every month, you can find more details here!

Since most of us would like to attend the AZIMA event regarding personal branding on Tuesday, June 15th we will be pushing back our regular AZPRC June meeting to Thursday, 6/17.

Fortunately for us, this works out just great cause an old friend Brian Seitz, (@brianseitz) founder of Cold Pavement, a networking group for professionals in Seattle, will be in town to speak with our group. We will be meeting at Echo Coffee, 6/17 around 6pm to hang with Brian.

You might have read this article from Valley PR Blog late last year as his club was mentioned. Brian and his partner Jessica started Cold Pavement with the idea that networking should be simple, i.e- “Networking with fellow professionals shouldn’t be difficult or expensive. With us it’s not. All we ask is you pay your own tab.”

The group has been around since January 2009, and will have it’s 18th meeting coming up in the end of June. If you’re in the Seattle area, we definitely recommend this group, cause it is for all professionals alike!

Join us Thursday, 6/18 at Echo Coffee at 6pm to hang out and meet new people!

We will retweet on Twitter so watch out and we hope to see you there!

Just a quick shout out to Abby Gilmore, she is graduating from ASU, Walter Cronkite School today! We wish you the best Abby on your new adventure at Vertical Measures!

Are there topics we should be avoiding in social media? What are they, and how should you approach them when required to? We’ve seen how controversial topics can play a part in nearly bankrupting a brand (Southwest Airlines debacle with Kevin Smith, etc…), and we’ve also seen how controversial topics can unite (free Iran campaign on social media). So what’s a brand to do?

Politics

As with any topic, there are extremists….but as a graduate with a degree in Political Science I’ll tell you that you don’t want to mess around with people and their views on politics. As a brand, you should be very wary of siding on one topic or another related to politics (immigration, abortion, government regulations, etc..). Taking an educated, unbiased approach is a better strategy. Providing education on both sides, and entering the conversation is one thing, but coming outright with your personal opinion is yet another. Just tred lightly, enough said.

Religion

Yet another topic that brands should avoid, unless of course your industry is centered around it, is that of religion. Just like Politics, there are fundamentalists in this area that will never ever change their minds about it. Playing religion neutral will keep your brand away from isolating one group or focusing too much on another.

Money

Why is money such a sensitive topic? Likely because our society is so consumed with it. Those that don’t have enough aren’t happy, and those that have it want to keep it. Each of us has our own view on money and are likely to express it if provoked. So a brand should try to avoid topics relating to money, that is unless it revolves around giving money away. Then we’re all ears!

Sex

I won’t go into explicit detail here (strictly PG with me…haha), but it should be understood that discussing sex in relation to your brand is not a good idea. Of course, if your brand revolves around it then full speed ahead (imagine the Playboy brand without mention of sex….boring!).

So, what should you do if you find yourself in the position of having to address one of the above topics? Managing negative publicity is similar to how I deal with the above topics when doing social media marketing for clients. Keep exchanges private, attempt to neutralize the situation, and if all else fails: abandon ship or don’t hop on the ship AT all. Sometimes it’s best just to leave and let be.

What topics do you avoid talking about when using social networking? Have you ever had to deal with addressing any of the above via Twitter/Facebook/Etc…?

Everyone has something to say in response to the S.B. 1070 being passed by Governor Jan Brewer two weeks ago. Whether people agree or disagree, I was always taught to keep three things out of most conversations “Money, Politics, and Religion.” Does social media follow this rule? I am quite surprised the backlash from this bill being discussed on blogs, Twitter, FB – so many angry people. I am not here to say I agree or disagree. I just find it interesting how the communication channels have expanded over time. Think about it, 10 years ago it was not so easy to express opinions publicly, now you send a tweet and the whole world could potentially see it. One buzz word becomes a national trend for the week.

People have it easy nowadays, you can spread your opinion where ever you like with thousands of readers. Problem is, when will people learn modesty? Is it too late to expect modesty when it is so easy to click a mouse?

There are two instances that stand out in my mind where social media has caused a problem for companies.  In February, Southwest Airlines was involved in a social media disaster.  Filmmaker and actor Kevin Smith claimed that a Southwest Airlines employee told him he is “too fat” to fly.  Smith then contacted Southwest Airlines via Twitter about the incident.  One tweet read:

“Wanna tell me I’m too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR.”

Southwest Airlines responded through Twitter also, and eventually issued an apology on their blog.

Another example of social media gone wrong is Honda’s online campaign for their new vehicle, the Honda Accord Crosstour.  The company set up a Facebook Page where pictures of the vehicle’s design were shown to fans.  Unfortunately for Honda, the response was not what they may have expected.  The pictures were flooded with negative comments about the design of the car.

Things may have been looking up when one commenter stated he would purchase the car if he could.  Then it was made apparent that the commenter was Honda’s product manager.

Though social media is extremely useful in business, it can lead to problems if not used effectively.  Given the viral nature of social media, word travels faster than ever these days.  So be careful what you tweet, be responsive to customers and be honest with the people who are potentially spending money on your product.

Although I love my novels and authors like Dan Brown and David Sedaris, I also love reading books that deal directly with my chosen career so I thought I would share my Top Ten with you.

1. What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis. He is witty, condescending and isn’t afraid to tell it how it is. “Jarvis uses the Google’s success to trace aspects of the new customer-driven, user-generated, niche-market-oriented, customized and collaborative world”.

2. Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way we Think and Feel by Jean Kilbourne and Mary Pipher

3. Personal History by Katherine Graham. An autobiography about the first woman publisher of the prestigious Washington Post. For the ladies, a must read of the trials and tribulations of being a working woman back when women did not hold high positions in the business world. Her life since childhood, marrying rich and famous and handling the infamous Watergate scandal makes the autobiography an interesting read.

4. On Writing by Stephen King. From one of the greatest novelists, King describes his writing process and evokes creativity in yourself throughout the book.

5. Basic Black by Cathie Black. Another woman-themed book but important in learning to succeed in the workforce but also in life. As President of Hearst Magazines, Black gives anecdote after anecdote of some of life’s biggest lessons while climbing the ladder to success. One of my all time favorite books!

6. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. This witty, quick read book discusses “long held notion that Americans generally question the masses and eschew groupthink”.

7. Wikinomics by Don Tapscott. This book discusses the way in which the digital world is moving towards mass collaboration from participants in the online community

8. Purple Cow by Seth Godin. A How-to PR/Marketing book on getting your client to stand out.

9. The World is Flat by Thomas L Friedman. Not gonna lie, this book is hard to get through. Its slow, sometimes confusing and well, 400+ pages. However, it does a good job at discussing how the world has changed into a no barriers, interoperable world of the internet, social media and the technologies included in all of it.

10. Looking for recommendations! If you know of a great book, please comment!

We would like to move forward and incorporate a philanthropic dimension to our group and we have identified the Arizona Animal Welfare League as an organization we would like to donate our time and money to. This organization supports animals up for adoption and requests that volunteers help socialize them through the process. Please join us for the volunteer orientation Saturday, May 8th from 9-11am. After the orientation, we will be assigned a particular adoption event whether it be at a Petsmart or local shelter. Please note, you have to attend the information session to learn the process before they allow you to volunteer.

We will continue to RT details in the coming weeks, if you’re interested please email me sarah.geiger27@gmail.com.