The Luminaria Media Blog

Hello, everyone. It’s been a crazy couple of months around here. Those of you following me on Twitter and Facebook know that I’ve been keeping relatively active in Social Media land, but clearly not here on the blog.

Part of it has to do a whole lot of busy, which is what I like to be. Some great new clients have boarded — including the National Trauma Institute, dedicated to the funding and development of research addressing trauma injury in the United States, and Sugar Mama’s Bakeshop, the best dessert bakeshop in Austin, largely responsible for the completely awesome Cupcake Renaissance we’re experiencing in Austin. Also, my longtime client, the National Hispanic Institute, celebrates 30 years of developing Latino leadership this year with a full slate of summer programs.

Part of it also has to do with deciding what to do with the blog’s direction. Blogs are especially fascinating to me when you’re able to witness them evolving. Initially, I’d intended for this blog to be observations about PR and the media as a PR practitioner. I still think that’s valuable — but I want to make sure it’s rooted more in my day-to-day and week-to-week than the esoteric. Plenty of PR blogs address questions like “Is the press release still valuable?” (A: Yes, as a backgrounder to support the direct contact you’re making with a media person), but not enough answer tougher, of-the-moment questions like “What do I do about that client who owes me $2,000?”

So my intention is this — soon, every Friday (and whenever else the mood strikes me), once I’m through what is turning out to be a very busy summer, you’ll see insights about what I learned or what was reinforced for me during the week.

This week, it was about working beyond the 9-to-5 work day window. I’ll do that for my clients. There’s a point at which I want to unplug from the work day, of course, but sometimes, 9-to-5 isn’t enough to contain everything that’s happening.

This week, I had an author through on a leg of his book tour, and one bookstore called after his reading Tuesday night with questions about whether he’d left behind too many books. It was worth it to hear the event coordinator declare her and her co-workers “groupies” (their choice of words!) based on the reading. This morning, I met that client outside my office before 8 a.m. with promo materials for a future date before he drove nine hours to another tour stop. President Obama gave a speech in Cairo of great import to another client, and did so at 5 in the morning our time. Last night, I interviewed several members of an organization I work for to prep for an article I’m writing for the group’s publication — and the only time we could all get together was 7 at night. It’s part of doing PR in 2009, and I’m fine with that, though I suspect that I owe my kids a trip to the zoo to make up for it.

I recently was questioned by a friend in an online forum about my ongoing use of Twitter. She professed her hatred for Twitter, and wasn’t sure what was the reason to type in <140 character posts rather than just write something substantive and good. (Assuming substantive = good and short = not so good.)

For me, Twitter is most successful when you’re viewing all tweets together. Individual Twitter accounts reveals things about what those authors are writing, their personality, their wit, and how they see the world. Together, however, they serve as a personalized newsfeed, helping you understand in this information-heavy world what’s immediately occupying people. I’ve been struck in recent weeks by Twitter’s immediacy. The emergency landing of the US Airways jet in the Hudson, breaking news on a court case impacting a client, the New York Post’s recent and misguided Obama cartoon, Laura Hall being freed from jail — all delivered to me initially via Twitter, before I’d encountered these bits of news anywhere else, with official news agencies’ tweets side-by-side with friends and colleagues watching the news.

If you’re out there, how do you use Twitter? Do you like it? And if so, why?

I’ve been working on a proposal this morning, as well as doing website inventory for a new client, and so I’ve been looking at their websites with a keen eye.

For small companies like mine, the company website is one of the great equalizers. I know that I can compete with larger PR firms, based on my record of media hits and my ongoing relationships with media and with past and present clients. My website is how I make sure that information’s getting out to prospective new clients. For a lot of us, it’s the first and only piece of information people see.

Therefore, it’s helpful to get an inventory from someone who had nothing to do with the formation of your website. Here are some good basic questions to give you the feedback you need:

* What are my impressions of the company?
* Do I get a sense of how successful the company is?
* Do I get a sense of how well the company can meet my needs?
* Is there anything on the site that’s inconsistent or incongruous?
* If I’m interested in doing business with this company, can I make contact with someone there?

Certainly, you can do your own inventory, but it’s likely that the website content is intuitive to you, as you’re the one who created it. Find someone who has the same computer literacy as your target audience, and be prepared to make the necessary adjustments once you get your report back. It can be an eye-opening experience on not just your website, but how you’re marketing yourself to the world.