The Byline: PR and Marketing Insights from Eiler Communications

It is a well-known fact in business that it is far more cost effective to retain existing customers than to recruit new customers. However, the state of Michigan has been trying to recruit “new customers” for decades by showering big incentives on companies from other states or countries to invest here. Instead, Michigan should take up “economic gardening” in their own backyard as suggested by the Small Business Association of Michigan (SBAM).

Economic gardening is the cultivating of existing small to mid-size businesses and growing them into much larger organizations. A majority of local business owners admit that they sometimes feel ignored by the state. This is attributable to the fact that the Michigan Economic Development Corp. has been focusing its efforts on searching for outside investment, not helping small, local Michigan businesses grow.

It is for this reason that the SBAM is a strong advocate for economic gardening. At SBAM’s annual meeting this past Thursday, the group educated its members and the candidates running for governor on the reasons why the state should be pursuing this strategy. They shared the success stories of the various pilot programs they are running with 24 companies across the state. SBAM plans to follow up with a white paper and a plan for fully implementing economic gardening by September.

Between the years 1995 to 2007, almost all of Michigan’s new jobs came from small firms with less than 100 employees. While at the same time, employment at companies with 500 or more employees declined by 15%, or 230,000 jobs. According to these results from the Edward Lowe Foundation and the SBAM, it makes far more sense for Michigan to expand from within by focusing on the small, homegrown businesses.

Emily Rozanski

Eiler Communications has been providing pro-bono PR services to Operation Never Forgotten (ONF) since 2008. ONF is a national non-profit, non-partisan awareness campaign to commemorate fallen heroes, wounded warriors, deployed troops and the families that love them. The organization helps bridge the gap between our military and civilian world through public service announcements (PSAs) which can be seen and heard in the Mall of America and International airports across the country, on highway billboards, through television commercials and on the radio.

ONF has had to recently turn down troops and their families’ requests for PSAs due to an overwhelming workload and shortage of funds. Realizing that they were only scratching the surface to ONF’s mission and what our heroes deserve, the organization solicited Eiler’s expertise in social media marketing. Eiler is hoping to capitalize on a donation opportunity for ONF presented by Chase Community Giving. Through a Facebook voting application, Chase is giving away $5 million among 200 deserving charities. We need your help to ensure that ONF secures a spot in the top 200. Anyone can vote by simply clicking the link- Vote Now. Polls close July 12. Please help this worthy cause!

Emily Rozanski

Ann Arbor, MI, June 17, 2010 — In a day and age where people are leading parallel lives via the Internet, it’s not shocking that researchers are frequently finding new trends pertaining to social media. It’s also no surprise that with so much new information available to the public, controversy surrounding Internet privacy has surfaced. Eiler Communications finds that with the social media being such an important tactic for marketing, it is imperative that company employees manage their online content. Failing to do so not only puts your personal reputation at stake, but your company’s as well.

“As new media is evolving as another public relations tool it is imperative that clients are educated on proper usage,” explained Larry Eiler, Chairman of Eiler Communications.

With that said, the younger half of the millennial generation has been accused of putting too much information about themselves on the Internet. However, new research from the Pew Research Internet and American Life Project suggests that part of this age group (18-29) is savvier with regulating their online content than their elders.

Not just bosses and friends are interested in checking out your photos, lifestyle approach and posts online. Given that the younger millenials are putting a ton of information on display, they are limiting what other people can see. They are more likely than any other age group to remove names from photos with beer cups and delete embarrassing rants with friends.

The study done by Pew found that 44 percent of young adult Internet users limit their personal information online, while only 33 percent of users ages 30-39 claimed they did the same. The numbers lessen as the ages of users increase. In the same study, 71 percent of 18-29 year-old social networking users surveyed said to have changed their privacy settings, almost 20 percent more than those surveyed aged 50-64. The youngest age group also beat out the other age brackets in other categories such as deleting unwanted comments and removing names from photos.

At Eiler, we endorse monitoring your online content. Although privacy settings differ with each social networking sites, and some privacy policies can be complicated (Facebook). It’s an area worth looking into. Just because young Internet users have grown up using social networking sites doesn’t mean that older users aren’t capable of limiting their personal information too.

It seems Internet users ages 18-29 are motivated to manage online content because they are likely trying to find a job, internship or other work-related gig. This means that these users are consistently aware of what content their potential employers could find. In fact, 26 percent of working Internet users have employers that instill policies about online content.

If you’re not changing your privacy settings out of caution, do it for love. The Internet makes it
simple for everyone to do scouting reports. People are checking up on their love interests. According to a study done by McKinsey, 1 in 8 of couples married in the U.S. in 2006 met online. Pew’s study shows that 16 percent of all Internet users search online for additional information about somebody they are dating or in a relationship with, and about one-third of those using dating Web sites check out their dates online as well. If you wouldn’t want your potential mate to see it, it probably shouldn’t be online.

Hats off to the young millenials; they’re keeping their content controlled- and it’s for their own benefit. Let’s commend them and copy them. It won’t hurt.

Rachel Krasnow

Using Facebook used to be so simple. I would log in, check my news feed, write on my friends’ walls and post photos without worrying about everyone knowing where I lived, what my interests were and how I felt at that very moment.

Facebook’s new privacy policy is unnervingly complicated. What’s different? A multitude of your interests and basic information is now public by default- including where you live and causes you support. In fact, anything that you like is linked to a public profile page. Do you like McDonald’s? The world knows you do. Do you like long walks on the beach? Hamsters? Jelly beans? Everybody knows, including your boss.

Another issue: your status updates and wall post aren’t just for your friends’ eyes. If you post something that says, “I hate the police!” your post will show up on a specific Facebook page for police. We’ve got to be more careful than ever. The problem is that we’re so used to be able to share our information; it’s hard to start putting it on lockdown.

The new Facebook privacy policy has lead to outrage. Users even created a May 31 Web event that investigated the problems with Facebook called “Quit Facebook Day.” The event only drew in only 35,000 of Facebook’s 450 million users and provides an example to how truly difficult it is to quit Facebook.

Yet, we don’t pay for Facebook (but rumor has it we may have to start paying soon). We don’t own Facebook, either- so we have the right to complain? Has Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made it too hard for us to privately create content or are we making it too easy for our content and profiles to be taken advantage of?

Rachel Krasnow

The use of social media has revolutionized the public relations and marketing world. According to Facebook, its users spend 500 billion minutes per month on the site sharing more than 25 billion pieces of content. Other social media sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, have reported similar results. Re:NEW Michigan, a trademark of Eiler Communications, conducted a survey in April to further investigate the growing prevalence of social media sites among Michigan businesses.

The survey compared to a similar survey from December 2008. Not surprisingly, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn all saw dramatic increases in usage in the time period between surveys. The biggest leaps came from Facebook and Twitter. Facebook saw a 28.5% increase in usage, and Twitter saw a 30.3% jump.

A more unexpected and enlightening trend was revealed by the results. Michigan businesses reported heavily using social media websites in seeking news and information.

This is most likely due to news sites directly posting on social media sites or links exist between these social sites and news sites.

Whatever the reason, survey respondents admitted to using Facebook, Twitter and blogs just as often as they use more traditional news sites such as CNN, MSNBC and The New York Times when they seek news and information. Many even reported using social media websites as their primary source of information.

This information poses the question of what the future holds for this evolving issue, both social media and news information websites. No answers yet, but here are some observations.

The benefits of using social media websites for seeking news and information are obvious. They provide the instantaneous results demanded by people’s quest for instant gratification of information. The large amount of time spent on these sites and the great amount of traffic to these sites is favorable for spreading a story.

But are social media websites sufficient in providing a business with all the information it needs, or are they simply being used to find leads that require further investigation? Do social media websites have the potential to make news information sites obsolete? Re:NEW Michigan plans to address these questions and others involving social media websites in our next survey in October.

We arrived at the office yesterday to discover that the nest was empty. Just cracked eggs. I was terribly disappointed as I really wanted to see the ducklings. I was in the middle of the ivy, taking a picture of the nest. I hear peeping and look behind me to see four tiny ducklings underneath the ivy.
Clarise is no where in sight. The ducklings are non-stop noise and walking all over the patio. They finally huddle together and Larry has to shoo way a huge black crow. We keep expecting to see Clarise arrive. I Googled animal rescue to see if I could get some advice as to what to do. I found this wonderful resource Mallard Marsh. Carole tells me that if Clarise is not around, I should bring the ducklings to her immediately and to keep them warm. If there are any warm eggs in the nest to bring them as well. I gather up the ducklings and take them to Carole. This lady rescues 200-300 ducklings a year. My research told me that the ducklings would swim immediately. Carole will not let them swim for 6-8 weeks as they would get to cold. Apparently, a mother duck only lets them swim for short periods and then keeps them warm. Carole will keep them under a heat lamp. I was amazed at the dedication of this woman taking care of all of these ducklings for over twenty years. I told her that maybe I’d see her next year and she told me maybe this year as Mallards have two clutches a year. On her wish list was kiddie pools, so I mailed the one I had bought to her today.

Start-up companies are becoming popular among entrepreneurs and experienced business people who have been “outed” from their jobs because of the economy and the implosion of the domestic auto businesses. This is true across Michigan and especially in the Ann Arbor region.

There are many organizations that provide pro bono counsel and services like business planning, investment, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, design, packaging.

CooLHeadS, which has developed its business to the extent it will show its creative new product, which covers heads and neck areas to prevent sunburn on hot summer and fall days, at the 12th annual EMU Exposure and Runway Show at Quirk Hall April 16.

CEO of CooLHeadS Tommy Green explains the firm has engaged the following groups, all pro bono, in his quest to organize and get the firm up and running:

The Sesi Business Plan Competition Committee (Paul Nucci, Richard King, Phil Rufe).
The B Side of Youth (Jack Bidlack).
University of Michigan Business Engagement Center (Nick Miller).
MotivateMichigan.org.
Michigan Manufacturing Association (Michelle Cordano).

“Having discussions helped mold my ideas into well-thought plans for execution,” says Green. “Each individual provided their own vision and insight on the project. “I listened, considered and put into practice. Each perspective gave me a truly different view of how CooLHeadS can become a solid business.”

Other infrastructure groups have developed in the past 10 years around the state are also available to help entrepreneurs — the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Southwest Michigan First. SPARK, The Right Place in Grand Rapids, Tech Town, Automation Alley and its Entrepreneurial Initiative.

Investment wise, the Michigan Venture Capital Association and the five angel investor groups across the state also fulfill key roles for emerging companies as they grow. There are Ann Arbor Angels, Blue Water Angels, First Angels, Grand Angels and Great Lakes Angels.

The Small Business Technology and Development Center guides new businesses through professionals in its 12 regions covering the state with 60 offices and affiliates.

In academia, we have Michigan State’s Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan Ross School of Business’s Zell-Lurie Institute and Wayne State’s Tech Town.

The Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest, a business plan competition since 2000, provides a great source of guidance through its mentors for new companies.

We have the infrastructure strengths that did not exist 10 years back. Let’s use the groups established to bolster new businesses as we march toward a better Michigan.

Larry Eiler

The introduction of a new trend, formspring.me, has many people talking. This website allows users to create anonymous question boxes for anyone with an account. The choice of leaving an anonymous question allows anyone to ask the juicy questions that would normally be avoided. Is a website like this a good idea? Seems to me it is something that will quickly be abused.

In an age where cyber-bullying is an everyday occurrence, people should be more cautious in regulating the web. Adolescents are continuously using new forms of social media to taunt their unpopular peers. Not only adolescents, but also some parents have joined in on the taunting, such as a mother whose fictitious MySpace account led to the suicide of a 13-year old neighbor. Cases like these are on the rise and with the ever-increasing changes in technology will continue to ostracize many of America’s youth.

Permitting anonymous posts makes it easier for bullies to get away with their crimes. They can easily say hurtful words without having to deal with the consequences. Because high school students in our society continually utilize social media, formspring.me is gaining new users on a daily basis. Although formspring.me may have been created with good intentions, I believe that it will quickly be misused and perpetuate the mistreatment of many of today’s adolescents.

- Sami Kraslow

“Nerd” has attained positive new popularity across Michigan in the past few weeks since Rick Snyder, well known entrepreneur and strong advocate of building new businesses, began his “nerd” television campaign. As a former head of Gateway Computer and an investor in numerous technology businesses through his investment businesses, Snyder proclaims himself a nerd in the positive and meaningful sense — someone who passionately pursues intellectual activities and is familiar with all of the emerging technologies and businesses that are succeeding across the state.

Nerd is what many people may be emulating as we move inexorably toward Internet 2.0 — the latest iteration of technologies that are compelling all of us to learn anew — and to learn to use new media and technologies to our advantage. Internet 2.0 is commonly associated with web applications that allow interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration.

An Eiler intern from 2009 has an interesting blog post on Web 2.0 and its place in the college classroom. Case Ernsting interned for Eiler last year, learning the ins and outs of public relations and the developing field of social media marketing. Case continues to explore digital marketing in his new role as Marketing Representative at MetaSpring Web Design in Ann Arbor. In a recent post for MetaSpring’s blog, Case outlined some key issues with Web 2.0 as it relates to job preparation for today’s college graduates.

Web 2.0 for Your Career
We’ve speculated on the job market in a few posts on this blog. It seems like college grads have the deck stacked against them in many ways. Whether it’s the economy, or skill set, many job seekers are having trouble.

Web 2.0 is a valuable asset to any college grad’s resume. More and more companies are looking to expand their digital presence. As a result, they expect entry-level employees to have the ability to implement web-based strategies. As Casey’s post points out, many recent college graduates are unequipped for these roles.
Here is a clip of the Casey’s post entitled, “Career Development 101: Teaching Web 2.0 Tools in the Classroom”.

“Colleges need to step it up. As a recent college grad, I see academia’s sluggish embrace of technological innovation and Web 2.0 as a disservice to my fellow students. Today’s job market has suffered in these tough economic times, but employers still seek workers who can gather information, assess it and act. Those in the workforce already rely on the web-based information-gathering tools daily, but if you’re currently enrolled in undergraduate college classes, you probably don’t even know they exist.”

For the rest of the post, jump over to MetaSpring’s blog: “Piece of Our Mind”.

Social media (SM) users are relying on the web 2.0 sites for more than just networking these days. Might SM’s greatest contribution be mental health? SM’s use as a therapeutic outlet was studied and explored by Mental Health Camp, a Canadian-based conference in April 2009. This collaborative project investigated SM’s influence on mental health, both from a PR perspective and as a therapeutic outlet.

The all day Camp looked at ways to erase social stigmas associated with poor mental health “one tweet at a time” through social media marketing. Camp presentations and discussions pitched SM as an opportunity to release public service announcements from a personal perspective.

Additionally, presenters positioned SM as an outlet for those dealing with stress and anxiety. In terms of daily relief, individuals can blog and tweet away mental angst. According to Mental Health Camp counselors, mental health ranges from mental wellbeing (e.g. minimum stress, interpersonal problems) and serious illness (e.g. addiction, schizophrenia, anorexia). Mental wellbeing is our focus in this blog. Rather than keeping thoughts and burdens weighing on your mind, why not write a soothing blog or post on Twitter? In this sense, SM is a new age, productive version of the punching bag or stress ball.

Although the Camp concluded in April, online therapy continues on the Mental Health Camp’s website (here) as well on sites throughout the internet. As we have documented on this blog Web 2.0 and SM continue to weave into communication networks in productive ways.

Personally, I find blogging and other SM software both fun and therapeutic. In addition to a quick cure for boredom, networking with friends on Facebook is a great distraction from daily stresses. And when my girlfriend and roommates are sick of listening to my rants about my favorite sports teams, I continue the discussion on the blogoshpere. I know, I know…how pathetic right? Well, the stigmas surrounding these online outlets are quickly disappearing while the benefits are becoming more apparent.

Case Ernsting