I am currently working with the latest group of interns at the office. Some of the brightest young minds in PR (Seriously, I’m intimidated) are jumping face first into the world of PR and digital media. I got to meet with them today and we talked a bit about the importance of how you are perceived by your peers and the influencers you work with.

Brand your personality

Yes, I know, we don’t like the phrase “personal branding.” But it works. We know what it means, so I’m going to use it. If every interaction you have with an influencer is a pitch, how does that affect all future interactions? I think that it is important that a PR pro’s relationship with an influencer, from Kara Swisher to a hyper-local news blog, be symbiotic.

If both parties are benefiting, then the relationship is much more productive. This is especially crucial in direct-to-consumer efforts when you may be working directly with an influencer throughout an event or media tour. Your personality becomes one of the most important aspect of your professional repertoire.

Be yourself

I do my best to be myself around an influencer that I will be working with in the future. But what else can you do to help maintain your place in the wide world of PR? Here’s my ideas:

• Walk the walk. Start a blog, learn about SEO, go shopping, become a PR Geek. The point is if you share the passion and excitement of a product you want your influencer to share with his or her audience, it will be far easier to tell that story.
• Be seen. Get out and meet the people you want covering your clients. Be part of the community. Be active and engage with them.
• Be genuine. Hopefully you end up representing clients you like and getting involved is easy. On the off chance you are stretching yourself daily, I think that sometimes it is OK to admit you are learning the space or learning the products and admit you are not an expert.
• Reach out and touch somebody. Once you establish a relationship. Maybe it was a successful placement of a pitch; could have been a cocktail hour. Whatever the start was, it is up to you as the PR pro to continue the relationship. Tweet them, comment on posts and maybe even give a phone call.
• Have an opinion. In this industry, it is important to be forward thinking and it’s not OK to put that opinion out there. Start a blog or even ask me (or somebody far more popular) if you can guest post.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the type of persona you think a PR pro should have. Tell me in the comments and let me know!

And people have written miles of books, blog posts and even tweets about best practices and what matters on Twitter. One of the biggest things that is almost universally agreed upon is to be genuine. So how do we as public relations professionals remain genuine when we’re asked to tweet about a client?

The precedent

Fundamentally you are free to talk about whatever the hell you want with your Twitter stream. It’s your content. It’s your copyright. It’s your reputation.

Your reputation? Yeah, your reputation. You put it on the line each and every time you post something to the public domain. When I hit publish on this post, I was subjecting myself to the judgment of past, present and future employers. It’s the same thing with Twitter.

If your precedent is to include links to client announcements or blog posts, then that’s fine. You’ve willingly shared that information. After all, without clients we wouldn’t be able to pay the electric bill so we could tweet, right? There is a conception that all posts in a social network should be neutral and objective. If you have a relationship, some feel it should be disclosed either up front or by using hash tags or other microsyntax. For example, James Governor from the analyst firm Redmonk uses “$client” to denote posts to his Twitter stream about his paying clients.

And that’s a judgement call you will have to make.

But what about when your employer says you must tweet on a client’s behalf?

Mandated tweeting

I see a potential for conflict when an employer mandates that an employee tweet on its behalf. Making a choice to share the announcement of a project you’ve worked on or a blog post from a co-worker is one thing.

Being told what to tweet and when to tweet it is another beast. The argument is that it’s not genuine. If you don’t want to post it, then why should you be obligated to? I’m all for being a team player. But sometimes you need to protect the community and precedent you have created. I don’t know what the right answer is. So, I’m asking you.

How would you respond to being given a pre-written tweet and being asked to post it? Would you? Why or why not?

So, I was quite humbled when I was asked to contribute to one of the up and coming communities of bloggers at PRBreakfastClub. For an idea of why I am so excited to do this, you only need to look at the other bloggers on the site.

What do I bring to the table? I’m hoping a lot. I will be focused on a few of the things that I talk about here: federally regulated industries, B2B public relations, technical how tos and other best-practicey topics. To anybody who has found me from #PRBC, welcome here. I promise I’ll post regular content here to.

In the meantime, what do you want to see? What topics would you like to see me cover here or at PRBreakfastClub?

But as a PR person and marketer, I know that fresh content is essential to staying top of mind with those that you want to be thinking about you. So how does one get back on the wagon?

Back on the pony, err, horse

Like Nike says, “Just do it.” Reemerging from the blogging black hole is as simple as opening your content management system and adding a new post. Now, I know this is over-simplifying things, but as a writer, it is your job to, well, to write. So start typing and hit publish.

One from the vault

We’ve all started a post, hit save and then forgot about it. Perhaps you just didn’t like how it sounded. Perhaps you called somebody out and your brain/keyboard filter engaged. Perhaps you thought you might be wrong with your perspective.

If you’ve hit a blogging wall, open your drafts folder and pick one to post. Take a risk and put yourself out there. After all, this is the Internet. Everybody’s right on the Internet.

I’m going to put my blog where my mouth is this week to back this up.

Short but sweet

I love writing short posts because they’re, well, they’re short. Write a quick post with no more than a link to something and three sentences with your opinions. We spend so much time worrying about if we’re right or if we’re in line with popular thought. If you think a campaign is dumb, say so. If you think a cohort’s blog post is nothing but genius, then say so. By keeping it short, you can turn the discussion to your commenters and get something off your chest.

Make a list

My Top 5 Reasons I haven’t Blogged Lately:

1. Busy
2. Working
3. Busy
4. Nothing to say
5. Busy

In all seriousness, a Top X List post is about as cliché as they come, but they just work. They get you back in the flow of creating content and are easy to post.

Betting back on the blogging horse is difficult. I’ve had several lapses in blogging and each time I resolve to get back into it. What’s the longest you’ve gone without posting? How did you get out of your slump?

“Social Media and Blogging in Federally Regulated Industries” isn’t a really sexy title for a conference session, but it’s one that is absolutely necessary. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, firearms and liquor are trying to figure out how to not only participate on the conversations that are happening, but also how they can capitalize on them.

The challenge

For some companies, the challenge is the disclosure of certain material information, or Regulation Fair Disclosure. Any publicly traded company is subject to scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission and if a company were to publish a blog post committing to a new product and then not meet that commitment, it could be subjected to not only a costly shareholder law suit, but a costly SEC investigation.

Recently, the SEC relaxed its rules (or modernized them depending on your spin) to allow companies to disclose information through their blogs. This is a major step, but seems to be one companies are afraid of taking. I can not find any questionable uses so far, so it seems not many people are taking the risk. Companies such as Google regularly announce new products and Betas through blogs, but when was the last time a pharmaceutical company announced a new drug through it’s corporate blog?

The challenges aren’t specific to big business. Liquor companies need to check the age of their followers on Twitter, tobacco companies have to reign in their marketing practices. I’ve even had the Investor Relations person at a firearms company say they haven’t begun to use social media because they don’t know what’s allowed.

The solution

The solution is simply to take a risk and do something. I know this is a scary proposition for marketers and public relations companies, but by taking informed risks, you’ll find success.

I have advised companies to issue announcements through the blog only. An average distribution for one company I worked with would be nearly $1,000 based on the inclusion of a safe harbor statement and all the other knowledge. Customer wins, product updates and smaller announcements simply don’t need an expensive press release. A blog post with embedded multimedia provides the same value.

Molson-Coors is able to use Twitter to post stories about alcohol awareness and other positive stories, but the bio explicitly asks followers to be of legal drinking age. Ruger, Smith & Wesson and other firearms companies do not maintain corporate blogs. It looks like Ruger might have control of http://twitter.com/ruger, but it’s protected so it’s hard to tell.

Creative marketing and communications practices are important to the success of any campaign. In federally regulated industries, creativity is even more important. Do you work for a federally regulated company? Share some of your best practices in the comments!

Twitter relations is similar to blogger relations, but eliminates the threshold of authority that comes with a blog. Brands, PR companies and marketing teams are beginning to provide limited access to everyday tweeters. Now, these aren’t your ordinary tweeters, these are people with at least 1,000 followers and who are generally quite vocal.

As you’ll see, I apparently fit this profile… But what I’m seeing is PR and marketing toeing the line between sponsored posts and actual brand evangelism.

Will tweet for food

Recently in the Seattle area, I saw Pemco flying across Tweetdeck. A group of local people had been invited to the top of the Space Needle and had a catered affair where Pemco debuted a new part of its “Northwest Profiles” ad campaign.

The people present had tweeted about being there and watching the commercial and hanging out with the Pemco CMO (who had “invited” his followers to attend).

Another example is an event that Alaska Airlines is sponsoring, called the Aviation Geek Night. A scant 12 people won tickets to take a ride in the airline’s flight simulator and have some further access to the company. This is not invite only and there was no expectation of tweeting on behalf of Alaska Airlines. Disclosure: I won a pass and will be attending.

Also, another invite I’ve received is to head to a location of a high-end dining chain called El Gaucho. It is opening a new location locally and is featuring a lunch menu. They hired a company to host a Taste and Tweet and local media and a few “average Joe” twitterers got to attend (again, disclaimer: I was one of them).

Are these sponsored posts? What about the media people in attendance at these events? I think those count as sponsored tweets and the media present must either disclose their receiving of free goods or food in their tweets. As a non-member of the media (anymore), I think that what I voluntarily posted to my Twitter stream also counts. But am I under a moral or legal obligation to disclose?

How to relate to Tweeters

So, is there a right way to engage with prolific tweeters? What is more important, having one person with 100,000 followers at an event or 20 people with 1,000 followers? I think the answer is pretty clear as the 20 people are more likely to be more vocal with their posts and opinions, resulting in additional mentions.

For small brands looking to boost the mentions in the Twitter stream, having a small, semi-exclusive event is a great way to do that. The problem is the discolsure dilemma. If the “average” person on Twitter is going to act as media at an event, then they should discolse the freebies. Would it have been acceptable for me to go to the El Gaucho event and not posted anything about it?

If PR and marketing companies are OK with people coming to the event and not tweeting at all, then they should not take credit for those that do. Mentions on Twitter as part of these events should not count as media mentions.

Measuring the impact

What value do these mentions have then? The word-of-mouth marketing that occurs from these is quite valuable. The mentions the above companies received helped boost their visibility and their reach. Did the events lead to more sales? Did they lead to actual press coverage? Those are some of the key metrics to consider.

What are your thoughts on this? Should PR take credit for bringing in assorted tweeters to an invite-only event? What are your best practices for tweeter relations? How do you see this trend evolving?

All. Or nothing.

During shows such as Web 2.0 Expo or CES or SXSW, so many people are clamoring for attention you either need to completely stand out from the crowd or risk getting passed over. So, if you’re planning on making an announcement at a show, make it worth your while. And, the reporters, analysts and bloggers you’re looking to have cover you.

Otherwise, spend your efforts building relationships and connections. Then, you can reach out to those relationships after the show and make an announcement then.

These short, high-level pitches are great for putting a link out onto Twitter, but for targeted, effective pitches, they are merely an arrow in the public relations professional’s quiver.

I’ll start with Twitpitch. Stowe Boyd, whom I have met a number of times and always enjoy chatting with, devised a plan to streamline getting pitches. A great idea and if you want to pitch Stowe, and Stowe only, then get on Twitter and throw #twitpitch on there.

What this exemplifies more than anything is how each pitch must be customized, tailored and based on the person doing the pitching’s knowledge of the recipient. Stowe likes music, composes songs and also has a music blog. Did you know that or did you just know to put #twitpitch in a twitter message?

MicroPR

MicroPR is essentially a way for reporters to pitch PR and Marketing people via Twitter. The full story is on Brian Solis’ PR 2.0 blog (which, if you’re not reading, you should be). So, on the surface, sounds like a great idea. And a cursory search of Twitter, shows the beginnings of an effective discourse.

But my problem is that it seems to be a case of PR folks outsmarting themselves. Thanks to MicroPR and Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, PR folks are able to keep an eye out for opportunities to place their clients in front of attentive reporters.

But of course a lot of hard work is still to be done. Establish rapport, making a connection is still the name of the game. I think that email is still an invaluable tool for PR pros. MicroPR requires a journalist to alter an ingrained work flow in order to post to MicroPR, monitor the results and then choose the best source.

So, two tools that are trying to unite PR and journalists. But I think the true task is to keep the emphasis on the relations part of our career. What do you think?