Attendees of the PRSSA National Conference were invited to a keynote session with over 1,500 professionals at the Public Relations Society of America International Conference on Monday, October 18. Bill Tancer, author of, Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters- Unexpected Insights for Business and Life, opened up the session talking to the audience about human behavior online and how this information can be utilized to benefit a business. Tancer stressed the importance of trending topics to help public relations strategy. Trending topics involve social media sites, such as Twitter, and search engines to find out what information people are concerned with. He used the example of Tylenol, currently the company is recalling some of its products, and by using trending services, such as Google Trends, Google Insights, and Tweet Cloud, Tylenol can understand how people feel about the company based on what they are searching and posting on social media sites. Tancer explained it best, “we are what we click.” Based on what we can gather from what people are talking about online, we can frame our messages to fit the trending topics.
The second keynote speaker, Jeffrey Hayzlett, is the author of, The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing?, and spoke about staying current in the business world. When in leadership positions, Hayzlett explained that Conditons of Satisfaction (COS) is crucial. By initially laying out the COS within a business, there will be less need for “catching up” in the long run. If employees cannot keep up, it is not the company’s responsibility to hold on to that employee. This information is extremely applicable to the fast-moving field of public relations. The industry is constantly changing; currently there is a huge shift moving from the use of traditional media to social media. The professionals who cannot keep up with the trends could hinder a company’s level of success. Hayzlett quoted a fictional employer speaking to an out-dated employee, “we love you… but we’ll miss you.” In PR, in order to success you need to move fast. It is more important to stay ahead and risk making a mistake, than to not keep up with the industry. Hayzlett explained, “If you make a mistake, no one is going to die.” It is more important to be one of the first to get a story out, for example, and risk making an editing mistake, than take the time to perfect it and submit it when the story is no longer applicable. Hayzlett explained his success with Kodak camera company, being the first to put out a waterproof hand-held video camera. They thought of the idea and immediately created it. Kodak could have taken an additional year to further evaluate their product, but that would have risked their opportunity to beat out other camera companies. Kodak now outsells its competition ten to one.
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