Remain Relevant in Changing Times

Nobody knows more about relevance than Ty Pennington

I confess I've had a crush on Ty Pennington since I first saw him goofing around on the set of Trading Spaces several years ago. He has that irresistible appeal of little boy mischievousness combined with grown-up charm.  I had a chance to meet him in person last year at a movie premiere and was pleased to discover that is he is as genuinely nice and authentic in person as he is on TV. (The movie, Ocee Nash, was his first acting role. He's a much better TV personality than an actor, but since I'm neither, who am I to judge?)

So, it's a real pleasure to see him be so successful with this ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Ty's a talented, smart guy.  But the tuth is, the show works because of the team's ability to make everything about their project relevant. The families who are selected to receive a new custom homestead would probably be just as happy to receive any house, but what they are presented is a beautiful, custom home that reflects their personalities, hobbies, dreams and  memories. It makes for riveting television, but more importantly, it makes for happy families that are often overwhelmed by the experience of being an Extreme Makeover family.

The way Ty and team are able to make each room relevant is by asking a lot of questions, paying attention to the smallest details and then going to great lengths to incorporate the family's  input into everything from the design to the smallest accessories. Beyond creating a fascinating TV show, they have also made it matter beyond the Sunday night episode we see. People who participate in the "it takes a village" approach also contribute to the show's blog about their experiences so viewers can learn more about what goes on behind the scenes.

Imagine if we could delight our customers the way Ty's team delights theirs. We probably can, if we're willing to truly understand the power of doing what it takes to ensure we remain relevant to those who do business with us. All it takes is the willingness to ask questions, absorb the input and act on it. I'd love to hear more about how you've remained relevant. What's your secret?

Relevant doesn't necessarily mean new

It's tempting to think that relevant equals "new" when talking to teenagers. Not so, as I learned from my youngest daughter this weekend.

On Saturday, my husband and I went with  Sydney to visit Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, GA. This was the 12th college campus Sydney, a high school senior, has visited. (Full disclosure: Edelman has represented GCSU in the past, though they currently are not a client).

It was a very well organized event, drawing about 1,000 potential students and their parents to the campus, where we got a tour of the entire place, including the dorms, which were just awesome. Organizers did a great job of showcasing things about the school that they believed would be relevant to the students in attendance.

Professors' lectures are downloadable on iPods. Check.

The entire campus is wireless. Check

The dorms are co-ed and the rooms are new and well designed. Check.

The classes are small. Check.

There are tons of ways to get involved on campus. Check.

I knew all of these things were important to Sydney, so when we left the event after several hours, I figured she had what she needed to make a decision. That's when I got surprised.

Coming home, I asked her what she liked about the school. She named all the things listed above. Then I asked the magic question, "Was there anything you didn't like or wished you had heard more about?" Her answer was enlightening: "I wish they had talked about traditions."

As I probed further I learned that when Sydney visited UGA, GA Tech, UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, Furman and Elon, they all talked about long-held traditions that every incoming Freshman should know. She said it made her feel like it was a special place where everyone had at least one thing in common: knowledge of a tradition that had spanned generations.

What an interesting observation! It had never crossed my mind that traditions would even make her radar screen, never mind be important.The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized how cool I thought it was that Freshmen weren't supposed to walk under the famed Arch on the oldest part of UGA's campus.

She intends to apply to GCSU, among others, but also plans to seek out the answer to her question, "What traditions do you have?"

I couldn't help but wonder how many businesses get so caught up in "what's new" and "what's cool" that we fail to remind customers and potential customers of our history and traditions that played a role in making us as successful as we are now.

What does your business do to honor tradition while moving forward?

Has the Internet given customers too much power?

On Friday night, ABC's 20/20 attempted to find an answer to the question, "Do consumers have too much control?" The segment featured the head of The Consumerist, a popular blog site where unhappy consumers can blog about negative experiences they've had with various companies.

To tell you the truth, the show seemed almost stale to me. It featured the YouTube video we've all seen a hundred times about the sleeping Comcast repairman, then went on to show the recording of the guy who tried for 20 minutes to get his AOL account disconnected. Ironically, the show proved the very point it was exploring; that is, the Internet is lightening fast - so much so, by the time we see something on the "real" news, we've already heard about it elsewhere.

Consumers do have more control than ever before, thanks to the proliferation of blogs in particular. Bloggers love to link to one another (it drives up their Google Juice, which sounds more like a movie title than a legitimate marketing strategy). And here's the rub: bloggers aren't bound by the same ethical standards as journalists. We can call them Citizen Journalists or Influencers or any other clever name we can come up with, but it doesn't change the fact that they don't have to corroborate a thing before they publish it. Moreover, as the show noted, sometimes even after a company has righted a wrong that has been outted by a blogger, Google's memory is a long one and keyword searches can often mislead the searcher to old information, further making a situation worse.

So, what's a company to do? Well, first off, smart companies monitor cyberspace to find out what people are saying about it. The blogosphere is much like having a gigantic, anonymous focus group where you can learn what people really think about your company. It's the best listening device/spy available since the invention of the little sister. Edelman's study of bloggers showed that most care about accuracy and would be willing to correct mistakes that are called to their attention. A majority also said they were interested in hearing directly from companies. And yet, I routinely hear company officials dismiss bloggers as not important targets of the company's communications efforts.

It's a mistake to think that bloggers are just bored nerds with nothing better to do than post their every thought. Most have legitimate complaints that deserve addressing. Companies that engage them, rather than fear or loathe them, will come out ahead. Bloggers won't go away. If anything, their voices will become louder.

There are some great tools in place now that let companies monitor the blogosphere ( with Technorati being the best, in my opinion) and make intelligent decisions on how and if to respond. I strongly encourage you to check them out and start thinking about how your company can engage bloggers to neutralize problems or, better yet, create brand enthusiasts.

How to stay top-of-mind with potential customers

I just returned tonight from my annual vacation with girlfriends. This year, we had an especially good time. We went to the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. Talk about a lesson in remaining relevant!

The tellers varied tremendously, from my all-time favorite, Donald Davis, to Syd Liberman and Sheila Kay Adams. Each has a unique telling style, but what they all (and dozens of other tellers) have in common is a remarkable ability to tell an old story in a way that seems so fresh you feel certain they created it just for you in that moment. It's not easy to tell a story that keeps 1,500 people on the edge of their seats laughing, crying and connecting, whether they're 6 or 86 years old.

How do they do it? First, they know their audience. They know that a majority of the people at this particular even are educators who not only want to be entertained, but are there to study how captivating stories are crafted. The tellers seize the opportunity to incorporate a point that enables any listener to, in effect, re-tell the story to friends and relatives who didn't get to hear it. In other words, by merely telling stories well, they make it possible for everyone in their audience to become tellers too. We can - and should - do this when telling our corporate stories too. People love to share with others. Our job is to make it easy for them to do just that. It's how we become - and remain - relevant.

Connecting with the audience expanded beyond the tents, though. I couldn't help but smile, marvel really, at how local retailers tried to make themselves relevant to the 10,000 people who poured into Tennessee's oldest city for four days. One women's store on Main Street really went all out. As is often the case this time of year, the weather ranged from the low 40's to the 70's within a matter of hours. Practically everyone who attended the festival passed by the store a couple of times a day. So what did they do? They changed the window display based on the temperature. When it was chilly, the window contained beautiful sweaters and jackets. As it warmed up, lightweight blouses and long flowing skirts appeared. Traffic was heavy in the store every time I passed by.

Another store display made me chuckle aloud. Called Intimate Treasures (no, I won't provide a link), it was on a busy road that many visitors drove to get to the storytelling festival. As the name implies, the store specializes in sex toys and adult games. So how did they attempt to draw attention from visitors? By featuring skimpy costumes in the window. Not so unusual, right? But remember - people were headed to a storytelling festival.... so the costumes were storybook characters, such as X-rated Hansel and Gretel one day, Cinderella and her prince another day. Clever, huh?

Whether you are trying to connect directly with a particular audience, or merely benefit from the spillover effect of an interest in a specific product, it's important to consider the mindset of your target audience. People respond best to things that are top of mind for them. What are you doing to ensure YOUR company is at the forefront of your customers' minds?

Should we put the news release on the DNR list?

This week marks the 100th anniversary of the news release. I wonder how many news releases will be issued to tell people this nifty little fact? If you're thinking about celebrating this milestone in some way, I'd like to suggest you buy a box of Godiva chocolates and send them to me right away.

Since I believe we need to re-evaluate what we're doing at least every 100 years just to see if we should keep doing it, now seems like a good time to ask the question, "Are news releases still relevant?" I think they are; however, we're already seeing a quick shift to getting the news out by word of mouth and I think it won't be long until WOM methods eclipse the standard news release significantly. (BTW, here's some trivia for you - did you know that NEWS is actually an acronym, rather than a word? It stands for North, East, West and South. Information comes from every direction; hence, it's news.)

For the forseeable future, we'll continue to use news releases to build awareness among the mainstream media, but businesses that fail to recognize the power of WOM will soon find themselves standing on an island wondering where everybody went. It's the combination of news releases and digital communications that will drive the awareness needed to rise above the clutter.

That's why it is imperative that PR pros and the businesses they represent learn to maximize the great tools available to us, such as blogs, search engine optimization, wikis, AdWords, RSS, etc. The fact is, the mainstream media is turning to digital media, such as blogs, on a daily basis to find sources, get story ideas and learn what the users of products and services think about them.

The standard news release is simply a one-way communication vehicle trying to duke it out in a two-way world. So when you are considering working with a PR firm, or you're a PR pro who represents a business, make sure your digital strategy is rock-solid. After 100 years, we should all have the news release thing down just fine.

Horse power vs. horse sense: the race to remain relevant

Today, I went to the Atlanta airport to pick up my friend Chris Clarke-Epstein, who is in town for a couple of days to lead a training session for Deloitte.

As we were leaving the parking garage, Chris noted that she had never noticed at any other airport reserved parking spaces just for the news media. In Atlanta, each local TV network affiliate has a reserved spot as close to the airport as possible.  I explained to her that there are also cameras around the airport that actually belong to the media and can be instantly accessed in the case of an airport-related incident, such as a security problem or even an airliner crash.

Clearly, airport officials have figured out how to work with TV reporters to make the airport more relevant for their viewers. Now, on a moment's notice, you can turn to any Atlanta TV channel and get an up-to-date report on what's going on there. Reporters now know exactly where they can go on the property, what they can film and how they can get the latest accurate information. No doubt, there was a time when reporters were viewed as a nuisance more than anything. Now airport officials see them as a partner in getting the word out to travelers on short notice about changes, ranging from last-minute security updates to the arrival of famous or infamous people.

When Chris and I left the airport, we went straight to my office at Centennial Tower in downtown Atlanta. I couldn't wait to show her the great views and beautiful facility.

The Atlanta Falcons were in town to pummel the Arizona Cardinals at the Georgia Dome just a block away, so downtown was really buzzing with people. I couldn't help but notice that some of these people were paying to be taken around the city in horse-drawn carriages. I couldn't help but think, "What could be less relevant than a horse-drawn carriage in Atlanta?"

There's very little about Atlanta today that evokes memories of horse-drawn carriages. That's more of a Charleston or Savannah kind of thing that seems to make perfect sense, given the tours they do of antebellum homes in particualr. In Atlanta, about the best you can do is take a carriage from one glass skyscraper to another, learning along the way about the buildings that "used to be" on such-and-such a corner before it was destroyed to make room for yet another modern architectural wonder.

How odd that a city that likes to promote how progressive and technologically advanced it is would fall back on something as trite as horse-drawn carriages. By the way, when you're riding around in these carriages, you'll see people passing you left and right riding Segways. How incongruent is that?

I doubt that many of the people who ride these carriages do so because they're walking down the street, see one, and think, "How charming! What a delightful way to see the old South!" More than likely, they just want to get back to their hotel and would rather not take a cab or walk.

The point is that relevance can't be declared or assumed. It should be strategic and dynamic. Providing easy access to the airport for TV reporters is both. Horse-drawn carriages are neither.

How about your business? Are you seeking ways to partner with others to remain relevant or are you falling back on the tried and true, something that seems like a good idea just because it has worked elsewhere?