Next month will mark my fifth Matter-versary. Five years ago I interviewed in our Providence office, a collection of three rooms and a supply closet in a converted mill building on the East Side. That supply closet later became known as “my office.” It’s with great pride that I reflect on how far we have come in a relatively short amount of time.

In five years, we have….

• Moved our Providence office twice to accommodate our growing team and expanded our Newburyport office space at least five times
• Secured client placement on The TODAY Show more than ten times
• Joined Facebook (and I quit MySpace)
• Grown from 15 to 50 professionals
• Retained 98% of our clients
• Celebrated 9 weddings and welcomed 10 babies into the world (plus, there’s one more on the way)
• Helped our clients attract more than one million fans to their varying social networks
• Watched the Red Sox win 1 World’s Series, the Bruins win 1 Stanley Cup, the Celtics win 1 NBA Championship and the Patriots lose 1 Superbowl
• Consumed 3,568 pints of beer, 1,327 bottles of wine and 7,331 slices of pizza*

My mother has worked for the same company for nearly 20 years. Those are the sort of things you just don’t hear anymore. While I’m not so sure I’ll be posting on Matter Chatter 15 years from now, I can say that I will remain connected to my Matter colleagues many years after my last Matter chapter. This is the sort of place and they are the sort of people you want to stay connected to. Under our roofs you’ll find some of the smartest, savviest professionals in the business, but more importantly you’ll find some the coolest, kindest people you’ll ever meet. So as I look back on the last five years at Matter, while I appreciate the paycheck and the experience, it’s the people I’ve met that I’ll cherish the most.

So think back. Where were you five years ago? What have you accomplished? And when you look back many years from now, what will you remember most clearly from this time? Share in the comments!

*I made this up completely

When our clients enjoy a significant milestone, we like to note the fact, especially when that milestone is part of the public relations program. Our clients at Pinhole Press had products featured on the Martha Stewart Show, and our team got together to enjoy the segment and take a moment to savor the sweet taste of success! 

Congratulations to Pinhole Press and the Matter team dedicated to their PR well-being.

As most of you in the PR world know, Facebook’s f8 developer conference was last week. With so many changes taking place to the platform we use both personally and for the brand pages we manage daily, I thought I would offer my take on the biggest news from the event.

Let me just mention that I am a very hands-on learner; the new functions and features don’t make a whole lot of sense to me until I can actually play with them and figure them out myself. But I’ll share what I’ve learned so far.

The first change is ‘timelines’ which is just another name for your profile. Mark Zuckerberg’s explanation was that people take pride in the content they share on their pages but that content is quickly forgotten. “It’s how you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page.”

The timeline feature will make your profile more visual and give you greater control over it by choosing what is important. Good content will be more important now than ever before. This will also allow users to make their profile much more personal, which was one of the big complaints when people were choosing whether to stay on Myspace or move over to Facebook. Timeline will be available to everyone in the next few weeks but if you want it now, check out this article from TechCrunch.

Open Graph was designed as a new group of applications that let you interact with your friends on a new level. You aren’t just seeing that they ‘like’ a song and ‘liking’ it too – you can join them on Spotify and listen to it with them.

The ‘ticker’ is part of the Open Graph feature. All of your updates on activity, such as games you play and what you are doing, will go into a real-time feed. Here is where the new verbs and nouns will appear like, Joe read a book, or Mary watched a movie, rather than into your friends’ feeds. Only the most important events will appear in the news feed.

One other change is that the applications will no longer have to ask for permission to post content to Facebook. A prompt will appear the first time you allow an application access, detailing what will be shared. It will only appear once, so permission is automatically granted for other applications you use.

Love it or hate it, Facebook changes regularly and affects the way we interact not only with the technology, but with each other. I hope this gives you a good idea of what’s to come on Facebook. Below are a couple links to some further reading if you are interested in learning more. It will be very interesting to see how both personal and brand pages change as these new features are rolled out. What do you think the future of Facebook will bring?

Facebook F8 – Here’s everything you need to know

Facebook’s 2011 f8 event: what impressed me the most

We constantly relate new encounters to past experiences in order to get an understanding of what to expect and how to act. When I started at Matter, I had to use what I learned in the past to help me grow as a PR professional. A comparison that struck me as mildly hilarious was the relationship between PR and high school. While this may sound like completely different topics to some, I found some interesting correlations:

Classes. What we learn in class constitutes what we talk about in our daily lives and impacts how we relate to the world.  At Matter, we often participate in professional development seminars, brainstorming sessions, team internals and client calls. We learn different ways to utilize programs, creatively present ideas and speak to the media, which helps us help our clients.

Studying. In PR, we have to be well-versed in all top publications of our clients’ industries. At Matter, we study publications so that we can understand what reporters and publications are looking for. This in turn sharpens our approach to these media outlets and increases the chance that our pitch will be chosen.

Lunch time gossip. For PR professionals, social media is synonymous with lunch time chatter. We are constantly sharing interesting articles or bits of news, creating excitement about something new and keeping in touch with people we don’t see during the daily grind. Social media provides that platform for people to connect, as you once did during high school lunch time.

Extracurricular activities. In high school, some chose to play sports, while others were involved in the drama club or school band. Some even chose to do it all! At Matter, we choose to do it all. In this agency, we learn to work with a diverse group of clients and take the time to learn everything we can about the different industries. This enables us to become a valuable resource to both our internal teams and clients.

The popularity contest. In high school, it seems like everyone wants to be part of the “in-crowd” and befriend the popular kids. The same concept applies to our clients.  We work to ensure that they are highlighted in the top publications and are positioned as an important and relevant company within their industry. Who wouldn’t want their client to be seen as the equivalent of the “prom queen?”

I hope this not only lets you walk down memory lane, but also sheds some light on how you have taken your learned knowledge and applied it to your PR career. The tools we learn throughout our lives shape how we perform at our jobs. This lifetime attitude of learning is what makes us the best we can be.

The devil is in the details.  That’s a phrase you hear thrown around quite a bit, particularly in PR.  There are so many details that you have to “get right” when you’re doing a PR campaign, launch, pitch, executive briefing book – that even the smallest mistake can have major repercussions.

Today, Netflix announced what some are calling an “abrupt” change in strategy.  And while it may seem abrupt to consumers, every communications professional knows that there were endless hours spent on the topic and corresponding items:  crafting CEO Reed Hasting’s letter to customers, writing and planning the blog post, messaging around the re-naming of the DVD-mailing service to Qwikster, planning for media inquiries, reserving the Qwikster.com domain, preparing to scan for the tone of coverage in the media and on social media platforms like Twitter, wait…Twitter? Was Twitter on the to-do check list? Did the team think about how they would use Twitter and the Qwikster name? Or did the communications team forget to address it?

Whatever conversations did (or didn’t) happen around Twitter don’t really matter at this point, because Qwikster is now getting almost as much attention for the person who owns the Twitter handle. And while the owner doesn’t have any bio information on his profile, it became very clear very qwikly that the person behind the @Qwikster handle is not from Netflix’s communications team – that is, unless Netflix is suddenly a big fan of Sesame Street and marijuana – which I’m guessing isn’t the case.   Ultimately, this oversight won’t hurt Netflix’s business and it will likely be quickly forgotten – but it doesn’t help the perception that Netflix made these strategic decisions hastily.   And, we all know, perception IS reality when it comes to PR.

When something like this happens, I always feel a pit in my stomach thinking about the PR person who is most likely responsible for *not* catching it.   Because that person is having a bad day.  That person is cursing the devil and his details.  And probably Elmo too.

Do you ever get to that point where you’ve worked on a project for so long, eyes glazed over, gone through edits and re-edits, and you just need a fresh perspective? I’ve been told many times by managers to just put it away and get back to it later.  In a fast-paced, overloaded world, it’s a hard pill to swallow to understand that sometimes you need to disconnect in order to reconnect.

This is something that applies to work and personal life alike. Let’s face it; working in the PR industry is not a walk in the park. It’s fast paced, demanding, and can definitely be stressful. Not to forget about the exciting, fun, and rewarding aspects, of course.

 Here’s a fun fact for everyone: CNBC named Public Relations Executives the 2^nd “Most Stressful Jobs in America” in 2011 just behind commercial airline pilots.

My point being, we as PR professionals sometimes need to pull away in order to come back and see the big picture. For this exact reason, Matter values the well being (and sanity) of their employees, and has created a sanctuary in the newly-expanded Newburyport office. The recently-renovated kitchen serves as place for Matter employees to gather together for breakfast, lunch, or even a Friday afternoon beverage.

Our new office addition only reinforces the need to, and benefits of, stepping back from the crazy day-to-day that is PR. Take that extra couple of minutes to drink some coffee and read the paper. Sit with some co-workers to talk about trends they’re seeing, or concepts they find interesting. Find a little lunch group that meets for a half hour at lunch (or breakfast, for you early risers). Make sure to laugh every day.

 The point is: TAKE THE BREAK. If no one has ever told you to do this, consider this my gift to you. Take a break, regroup and then go back to being the PR rockstar you are.

I like connecting with people and have always found the phone to be my preferred channel to do exactly that. If I can’t see you in person, I’d like to hear your voice. I’ll gladly read your words, but I’ll always prefer to embrace the words you say.

Recently I’ve been calling a list of companies in follow-up to a Matter mailing and that exercise has reminded me of my affinity for the phone. Some of my calls have been positively-toned, and some not so much. (That’s part of the gig…) In all cases the calls have been exciting – and often very entertaining.  Case in point: this week I shared some information about our newly packaged TIP program on a call, and heard some details about a son’s start of freshman year at college. I’m a big fan of my time in college – uh, who isn’t? – but I’m also a big fan of that time of life in general. On these calls I’m not only introducing myself and my company, I’m picking up a piece of personal information that I can use as a connection in the future.  Yes, that all can be achieved to a certain degree over email. But attaching a voice, one that supplies a sense of confidence and genuine interest in the conversation, is far more preferable. A good, high-energy interaction (while becoming rarer these days) lets the players read the situation by the words chosen, the volume at which they are delivered, and the tone they convey.

If I prefer the personal touch of the phone in sales situations, it’s certainly no surprise that I prefer the same opportunity to chat live with media contacts when I’m pitching a client.  The media relationships I maintain today are a serious source of pride for me, and I can remember numerous lengthy calls with many of these people over the years. More than a few of those calls were way off topic – but the discussion helped strengthen the relationship, built up a level of trust and provided continuity for future pitches. Again, email is the perfect tool of convenience, but I doubt the people I consider friends in the media community would consider me the same if I hadn’t often picked up the phone to connect with them.

I’m always impressed by those adept at setting the perfect tone in an email or letter. I’m extremely fortunate to be surrounded by a strong set of writers here at Matter. They are spot-on when they deliver their messages in pitch notes, press releases and all other communications, and, with obvious exceptions, their content is always a pleasure to read. But what really makes our team exceptional is that they always know when picking up the phone is the best fit for the situation.  They know that some calls, especially cold calls, can be lengthy, inconvenient and potentially awkward or nasty.  But they also know that over the phone is often where the best PR relationships are formed and where the best results lay.  When it’s time for a connection, do you reach for the keyboard instead of the phone?  Maybe you should give your voice a chance to convey your message and let me know how it goes.

The other night I was at home watching the Boston Red Sox play the New York Yankees, and during a commercial break, the new baseball movie trailer aired on T.V. The movie is called Moneyball, based on the book written by Michael Lewis. If you are not familiar with the story, Billy Beane, the General Manager of the cash-strapped, small market Oakland Athletics recognizes that in order to compete with the likes of the Yankees and Red Sox, the organization needs to shift its perspective and come-up with a strategy to economically compete with the big market teams. Utilizing complex statistics and mathematics, the team creates a numbers formula that is applied to each player they draft, trade, and sign, and the end result is a quantifiable model that gives the best predictable chances for a small market team like the Oakland Athletics to win.

Just as the economy drove GM Billy Beane to develop theories to garner the greatest ROI for each player in the movie Moneyball, so too has it had a role in changing the strategy a public relations company must build for its clients. With the economy laboring over the last few years, it has had an unfortunate effect on the media industry by inducing layoffs, consolidation to only  online publications, and in some cases even forced media outlets to shutdown entirely.  Having had the unique perspective of working in public relations for a few years, leaving for commercial business experience, and recently coming back, I have seen first-hand how the public relations industry has adapted to the economy by adopting social media programs to provide additional value for their clients to go along with traditional media outreach. Social media has added an effective way clients can identify with their target audiences, but  just like Billy Beane of the A’s, they too are looking for the best way to quantify the social media numbers to give them the best chance for success.

I read an article on PR Week entitled  Social media numbers don’t tell the whole story, and it discusses how many of the Fortune 100 companies like Coca Cola, Wal-Mart and Disney have dived head-first into the social media world with Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare accounts to generate as many followers and likes as possible. In this economy companies are looking for the best way to analyze their public relations programs, and while these numbers show the popularity of a brand, many public relations experts believe it is the actual engagement of the customer base that truly determines the success of the program. To be fair, the fan count and the size of the community is important, and therefore, is considered a measure of success. However, it shouldn’t be the only metric looked at to determine if a company’s social media campaign is helping with its bottom-line. Even with programs like HootSuite and TweetDeck that try to provide insight on the effectiveness and impact of social media, many companies are realizing that these tools have a long way to go in providing them with tangible evidence to show the parallel between numbers and engagement.

In the end, one thing is for sure, public relations companies and their clients understand that social media is here to stay. As analytics on social media improves over time, companies will be able to get a clearer view of how the numbers provide them with the best predictable chance to win. It’s as Billy Beane says in the movie trailer, “In this economy it’s adapt or die.”

My college roommate, Monya, had two particularly enviable traits: an indelible eye for whatever nightlife spots/new designers/under-the-radar bands/dining options were cool and the ability to talk to – and become  fast friends with – anyone. Even in an otherwise anonymous, large university, Monya couldn’t strut two steps without running into someone she knew by name, complete with colorful back story on how or why they met. People constantly sought her out for recommendations on everything from what parties to attend that weekend to which professor to avoid when filling out classes schedules. In short, she was a natural born social influencer. I’d post a back-in-the-day photo of us here, but that would A.) mean finding a scanner (pre-Facebook) and B.) reveal an unfortunate, late 90′s proclivity to long hair.

While I’d agree that you can improve your own social skills by learning how to make better small-to-medium talk and putting yourself into varied settings for practice, you can’t teach someone to be a social influencer. People like Monya are born that way - possessing a rare combination of charisma and genuine interest in the people around them – and they have tremendous power to sway their social circles.

Tastemakers with large networks don’t just walk our college campuses, they’re everywhere – especially online. Bloggers, Twitterati superstars and Facebook fiends (and those who are all of the above) affect consumer preferences whether it be on the most reliable diaper or the best cloud service for SMBs.

At Matter, we’ve recognized how the “Monyas” have gone digital and are wielding their influence throughout the social space. To harness the power of these individuals, we’ve created what we call a TIP (Targeted Influencer Program) offering for our clients. TIP is a formalized way to strengthen relationships with those key people who shape buying decisions of their readers, followers and friends. Of course, these programs are customized to each client and depend on a thorough research and measurement process to identify the players in our clients’ spaces and quantify the impact of their social sway both before and during a TIP campaign.

We’ve seen great success for consumer and technology clients already, from positive shifts in overall conversation about their brands across social platforms to changing perceptions of individual influencers, and, if I can use another college reference/term, we’re psyched to help more brands do the same.

I’m a PR newbie.

Well, let me qualify that: I’ve been in the industry just over 4 months now, and it’s amazing how much one can learn about PR in such a short amount of time.

That being said, I walked through the doors of Matter as a clean slate, willing and eager to learn the ropes armed with the skills and experience I had packed along for the ride.

PR lingo? That I had to learn as I went along, as no phrasebook had been tucked into my new hire packet. Vets, you’ll probably get a kick out of the terms I found to be foreign. Future newbies of Matter Communications, allow me to spell out a few things:

OPP: [op] Noun

1. Short for “opportunity” — not just any opportunity, but a coverage opportunity, or strategic outlet that’s been deemed a prime target to convey your client’s key messages.

EOD: [ee-oh-dee] Noun

1. Acronym for “end of day” — a common deadline.

• “I need this by EOD.”

*Note* I believe it was Nick Porter who got to field my awkwardly formal email in response to a deadline he sent me:

Hi Nick,

What does EOD mean?

Thank you,

Talia

PUB: [puhb] Noun

1. Short for “publication” — this could refer to a magazine, newspaper, broadcast media outlet, or blog.

2. A fine malt beverage establishment…at (you guessed it!) EOD, of course.

*Note* Have you seen the new kitchen kegerator?

Hashtag: [hash-tag] Noun

1. The “#” prefix symbol on Twitter — the community-driven tool used for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. It helps those with shared interests find information on Twitter.

• #PRisforlovers (No? Ok, I’m still learning.)

2. Also known as “the pound sign” on your touchtone key pad

UV: [yoo-vee] Noun

1. Acronym for “unique visitors,” or the number of individual web users to visit a site.

• Put on those shades…as of today, Examiner.com has a UV number of 7 million. That’s hot.

FU: [ef-yoo] Verb

1) An acronym for “follow up” — a means of being thorough, checking in, or being the squeaky wheel to get results.

• “FU with the executive and make sure we have the right contact information.”

*Note* Best if used in combination with other words, as was not done on my first encounter with the term:

One-line email from a Matter colleague: “FU.”

Me: “GASP!#$….Why are they so hostile?!?

PR: [pee-ahr] Noun

1. Acronym for “public relations” — doing anything and everything communications-based to help your clients with whatever they need, whenever they need it.

• May include: anything (that will get them positive results that matter…by EOD)

My colleague Rachel Schlacter & I share the above definition. What is your personal definition of PR?

*Note* My friends and family have a very hard time understanding what I do. Explaining it? #Forgetaboutit.  I guess my colleague Matt Mendo (#2) has had similar experiences.