The New Year always brings new hopes and aspirations of achieving lasting success.

We all start the year with a bang. We set goals and priorities that we want to last throughout the year. We seek to improve our overall wellness and our financial situations. But, it’s not just our personal lives that we are seeking to improve.

For PR pros, the New Year brings an opportunity to reflect on the previous year and the lessons that were learned. It’s a chance to set bigger (yet achievable) metrics. It’s a chance tap into your inner creativity to launch a fresh, new campaign.

Now that we are a month into 2010, are you on your way to achieving your goals? Have you set yourself up for a year of success? Sometimes we get so jazzed up at the start of the year, by the end of January that spark starts to fizzle out. A wise person once said that the secret to success is setting goals and finding the motivation to stick to and achieve them, no matter what. So, how will you stay on track to accomplish your personal and PR goals for 2010?

“Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.” – Paulo Coehlo

My Kindergarten son came home about a month ago, very excited about the mother/son dance at his school. He said he wanted to go, so I bought tickets and we made a date. As the dance approached, he got progressively quieter, and on the morning of the date, he confessed that he didn’t want to go.

 
My Owen is a boy who communicates only when he is ready to, so I couldn’t push him to tell me why he decided he didn’t want to go. And frankly, I’m pretty busy, so I didn’t push very hard– I crossed it off my calendar and we had a nice night at home instead.

 
But yesterday, he told me that he was glad we didn’t go to the dance contest, because he isn’t a very good dancer and we probably would not have won.

 
Which got me to thinking: How many things do we all opt out of for reasons that boil down to being worried that we won’t look smart, or talented, or be good enough? I’d venture to guess there are a lot.

 
This translates from life philosophy into the workplace….or at least, I’m going to take it there.

 
How many ideas have we discarded, tempered, or positioned, or just never brought up because we didn’t want to make a mistake?

 
One of the many things I love about Matter’s culture is that we empower every professional here with personal responsibility for productive creativity. We all participate fully in direct and honest communications with each other, our clients, and with the reporters, analysts, bloggers and our clients’ customers with whom we talk every day. It means we jump in with new and thoughtful ideas and questions to make our plans/programs/media outreach/client calls better, more productive, more useful. And it means we all make the most of each and every opportunity, because we are all individually responsible for the agency’s – and our clients’ – success.

 
There’s no doubt in my mind that our culture and philosophy are a huge part of the amazing results we collaborate with our clients to achieve. And, as we move ahead into 2010 and welcome new employees to the Matter family, we’ll continue to foster this culture – to encourage everyone to be brave enough to create success from the opportunities in front of us.

 
As for the mother/son dance, Owen still doesn’t quite believe that there’s no contest involved, but he has grudgingly agreed to give it a try next year – if only for the ice cream.

Anyone who has ever sat or scrolled through a “Twitter 101” is probably familiar with two of social media’s top rules: 1) be authentic 2) share worthwhile media assets/content. It’s often struck me as funny that these best practices are being tossed around as something new for PR.

Sure, the type of asset shared might be slightly different than it was 10 years ago, whether it be compelling video or a multimedia slideshow, and we might be forced to show how genuine we are in only 140 characters – but the role of a PR person as a reliable source of accurate and interesting information remains unchanged. I’d take this a step further and say that operating as a sincere individual with appealing things to talk about not only makes you a good PR professional, it makes you a good friend, dinner companion, date, drinking buddy, (insert role here).

Not only does this just feel instinctively true, research indicates that creating valuable resources is more effective than algorithm chasing as it pertains to SEO, a vital aspect of measuring a PR campaign or even the worth of a single press release. With sophisticated, ever-changing formulas for determining Google rankings, I say the best bet for keeping your clients top-of-mind (and top-of-index) is to tell a winning story and just keep it real, man.

Keeping up New Year’s resolutions. Trends to come in 2010. Conan vs. Leno. Where is Tiger Woods?

Up until last week, these were trending media topics and water cooler chatter. Then on January 12, everything was put into perspective. Devastated by an earthquake, Haiti was immediately thrust into the spotlight. You couldn’t find a media outlet not providing up to the minute updates and coverage.

Today’s media coverage allows us to experience devastation and destruction like never before. And after hearing countless stories of massive devastation, survival, compassion, love and continued hope, I find it a little difficult to join in the Team Conan or Team Leno debate.

Since the earthquake hit, millions of dollars and thousands of aid workers have flooded to the region. Today, the State Department declared that funds from mobile phone users donating $10 to the Red Cross via text have surpassed $25 million, making it the largest mobile donation campaign ever.

The global community coming together has been inspirational and provided a new perspective for 2010 – I hope we don’t forget too soon how quickly life, and the media landscape, can change.

As the social media/networking landscape evolves, it’s interesting as both a PR professional and a consumer to see how people and companies are using these tools. I find it fascinating, for example, that the celebrity world has taken to airing grievances and sharing personal thoughts and updates. Whether it is to comment on a tragedy or to lash out at another celebrity (think of the reaction to Kanye West’s outburst at the MTV Music Awards). It’s ironic that these same celebrities plea for privacy yet take to Twitter on everything. Twitter updates have become the news themselves!

But enough about celebrities, let’s talk about us.  I applaud companies that enter the Twitter or Facebook fray. I appreciate the insight into the business, the exclusive deals, event notices and other updates. I understand it’s hard to communicate to the masses and appease everyone and it makes me even more grateful to those businesses that I frequent that they care to do so. Consumers are flocking to these sites to weigh in with either their praise or complaints and it’s common knowledge that the masses, myself included, love having a voice and social media has given us a platform to use it.  But, I am often appalled at the tone, language and sheer anger of some of my fellow social media users. These rants can border on inappropriate, in my opinion, and I am shocked to see them in an open forum. As consumers, I think we should remember that a brand and a business are still run by people. There is a person behind that Twitter or Facebook update. If we have an issue, we shouldn’t approach them with swears and a blatant overuse of exclamation marks. This is top of mind for me lately because one of the businesses I follow, a local ski mountain, gets constantly abused by people on Facebook and Twitter for almost every update they post. As a fellow communications professional, I can just imagine this person sitting at their computer thinking they are doing something good, only to get attacked for some things they can’t even control (the weather!). Perhaps I am oversensitive because I am a PR professional (as one of my colleagues suggested to me), but, I am hoping that as social media evolves, that we will also evolve as users and introduce a bit more decorum. These tools are there for us to give feedback but constructive feedback may prove to be better than screaming and yelling.

And speaking of evolving as users, there was a fascinating article in the New York Times yesterday about the new “iGeneration”. Reporter Brad Stone quotes a doctor studying this generation and how it is affected by technology as saying that this generation will expect everything to be instant, whether it’s asking a question of a business or a professor or a friend. What etiquette will start to evolve from this and how will we as consumers and as PR folk adapt? I’ll be interested to see.

Last week was rough. The first week back from vacation always is, but the first week back from a vacation and the holidays…ouch. While back to the grind after a week crammed with family, friends, parties, food, gifts and skiing, I recalled some serious thoughts that I had on the slopes about my career.

Jumping off the lift with the cold beauty of the mountain sprawled out before me I was struck with excitement and the feeling that anything was possible. Swishing through the snow, thrilled with the speed of descent, I wondered how had I ever wound up working in an office? Certainly I should have been a competitive racer, a ski instructor who lived all year long in neon performance fabrics! In my mind colleagues typing away on laptops melted into happy goofy-hat wearing après-ski crowds who spent nights in the lodge listening to bad music and drinking whatever’s on tap. Why wasn’t I doing aerial ski stunts on a half-pipe in the Olympics or at least in a Mountain Dew commercial? Then…WIPE OUT! A patch of ice busts into my revelry, one ski flies off, goofy hat sails through air and my husband tries (unsuccessfully) not to laugh as he digs me out of a snow bank. Ah. That’s why. ‘Cause I’m a grown up, and one with a grown-up job. And back at work last Monday with a bruised elbow, full inbox and wilted office plant, I remembered feeling that acutely.

But then the phone rang; my client wanted to discuss their consumer launch, where we’ll introduce their brand to sports enthusiasts across the country. There is research to be done, communication outlets to explore, stories to write and new relationships to make! Fast forward one hour to next meeting, next client, a local startup…they are on the brink of signing some new business and suddenly need to be at a tradeshow. Time to draft an announcement and secure media appointments! Next up, next client, team brainstorm. How can we make a product that has been around a while, fresh to the same audience? After 20 minutes we have a whole list of new ideas. By the end of the day, I was feeling the same excitement that I felt at the top of the mountain…and it lasts longer and doesn’t end with a bruised elbow or snow in the ear. That’s one of the things I like most about working in public relations – the excitement.  Here at Matter we truly become a part of our client’s team, jumping in to study the ins and outs of their businesses, continuously learning new things.  Each client has different goals and we find creative ways to meet them – and no two days are ever the same! Of course we handle each client project with a certain business acumen, one based on research, skill and experience. But  just like pulling on your gear before you hit the slopes, it’s all really prep for the excitement to come.

2010 is finally here, and while I am very excited to start off the new decade, I can’t help but think where did 2009 go? In just 365 days I have graduated college, moved to a different state, landed an internship and a full-time job, and basically adjusted to the “real world”…. A LOT has changed, but it has all been change for the better.

Finding a job in the PR world was an eye-opening experience for me. On the first day of my internship I walked into the office feeling like a small tadpole in a large sea of sharks. Luckily that image quickly disappeared as I was introduced to my coworkers and teammates. Everyone was full of personality!

While the PR business is very fast paced, and at times stressful, it has also been a lot of fun. I have learned all new skills that were not in my textbooks, such as actual pitching, pulling together creative mailers and social media initiatives. When friends ask me to explain a typical day at work, I can’t. There is always a new project, task, pitch, report or something else that needs to be done – my days in the world of PR are always different. I love it.

2009 was a great year, and while I am sad to see it go, I am excited for what’s in store for 2010.