Dealing with Uncomfortable Charity PR Questions

In a recent article by Bill Shore, Darell Hammond, and Amy Celep in the Stanford Social Media Review, the writers made the point that many of the fastest-growing non profit organizations began with both good intentions, but also naive ideas about the magnitude and complexity of the issues they were formed to tackle.

Ronn Torossian agrees this is a common problem that can become a charity PR challenge if the entity is not prepared to deal with the questions that arise.

But that in and of itself can become a challenge, particularly when your organization or cause takes off. Suddenly you are up to your eyeballs in overwhelming success, trying to manage a monster that is growing faster than you could have ever imagined. You are taking on new partners, recruiting and tasking volunteers, and working on how to best bring in donations and then manage those funds.

Then, suddenly, someone asks you why you are not making more of an impact if you are “such a great success.”

Maybe the question is snarky, and maybe it is honest, but either way, you are compelled to offer an answer. What will you say? How can you answer the inconvenient questions?

Torossian suggests you prepare ahead of time to deal with these inquiries, so you can have the answers ready no matter what else you have going on.

One popular strategy is to acknowledge the scope of the problem and admit you are working hard in order to do more. This is an opportunity to recruit more help, and to “make the ask” for financial support. With more resources, even more can be done.

Another strategy is to answer the question without really answering it; to instead respond with a strong list of successes and exceeded benchmarks. This response focuses on what IS being done rather than what is not being accomplished.

You may even wish to consider combining these approaches. Leading in with all that has been accomplished while also letting people know there’s a lot more work yet to be done… work that can be accomplished with their help.

David A. Steinberg On Managing Goliath: Handling Big Data

Massive data warehouses are cropping up across the internet landscape, and one of the most current trends in business is finding ways to perform ‘deep analytics’ on the mountains of data contained in the virtual storage lockers.

Once you have found a subset of information that you want to analyze, what comes next? There are some basic guidelines for performing data analysis to make sure you get the information that will help you maximize your profits and online presence.

1. Get the team onboard

Make sure the players in your organization understand the value of Big Data. Delving into this information can offer insights to help gain competitive advantage. Some believe Big Data may be the last online opportunity to do this. The more data, the more detail.

2. Choose your flavor

Decide what kind of analytics you need the most. Generally there are two different kinds: exploration and analysis, or prediction and optimization.

Exploration and analysis involves a business analyst acting as a virtual Sherlock Holmes. In this scenario, someone notices a trend, and wants to find out why it is happening. The analyst forms a theory, and culls through the data to see if it is correct or to see if alternative theories are suggested or supported.  This is a more traditional kind of data analysis and it is still useful and popular today.

Prediction and optimization flips the data upside down. Here, analysts look to see what trends are currently trending  in order to predict where the trends will go. Historical data is mined and analyzed with statistics to see patterns. These patterns are then used to predict possible future events. But, these tools are not infallible. The analyst needs to have a solid knowledge of business practices and data to really use these strategies effectively.

3. Look at your own database

Instead of downloading data to servers that cannot handle big volumes of data, many companies now manipulate the information in the database itself. This lets companies run queries against all the data, and not just smaller portions of it.

4. SQL is not the only choice

SQL requires a lot of IT management time, and gets expensive for large amounts of data. New software is available to allow business analysts to add analytic functions to databases rather than have the programmers do it. This saves time and money.

The Final Word

Essentially, know how much you want to do, and how much you can do in order to decide what you need to do.  Many smaller analyses can easily be done in house by an IT programmer with self-collected and stored data.

More complex analyses would probably benefit from the in-database option, so sophisticated metrics can be applied as needed.  This may cut down on costs and wait times. Big Data has incredible potential, but it can become an overwhelming mess of information if not handled correctly. With some carefully considered steps, your company can gain the information and edge you need in your online environment.

David A. Steinberg is CEO of Zeta Interactive, a leading big data company. 

Consumer PR helps Counter Culture become the Mainstream

When, in 1974, High Times founder, Tom Forcade, first approached potential investors with his idea for a publication dedicated to teaching and encouraging Americans how to cultivate marijuana, he was met with incredulous skepticism. PR Executive Ronn Torossian asks; Why in the world would you want to tell people how to do something so far removed from the mainstream? Where is the money in encouraging illegal, counter culture behavior?

Well, the answer, it turns out, is in the one unchangeable fact of cultural change. One generation’s taboo is the next generation’s “normal.” Forcade could read the pot leaves, so to speak. He understood, correctly, that the pop culture icons of his day were driving cultural shift that would become both nostalgia and accepted behavior. In other words, the teens who thought they were so counter culture would eventually grow up into, more or less, responsible adults.

Forcade, of course, was right. '90s gave us our first “I smoked it” President, and the 2000s gave us our first, “I smoked it A LOT” President.

Today, 22 states have legalized marijuana in one form or another, and several others will vote on it this November. There is no doubt that consumer PR is driving this cultural trend. People who grew up when High Times was a “forbidden fruit” cannot fathom, and will not countenance, what they consider to be antiquated arguments for pot prohibition. Documentaries have been made and  endlessly quoted on social media.

Powerful political and legal figures have come out in blatant support of legalization. And, now, even Wall Street is getting involved. There has been a move to create a private equity investment opportunity in the marijuana business.

The consumer Public Relations angle in all of this cannot be understated. If the people had not taken the counter culture message mainstream, if regular suburbanites and presidential candidates had not admitted an affinity for weed, the plant would still be the domain of rebellious teens and rock stars. And, anathema to serious investment. But, the market has begun to embrace the reality that Forcade figured out decades ago. If you can give enough people the desire for something and then cultivate that desire, eventually those people can become the majority.

4 success secrets you only thought you knew

Success secrets. Yes, you have seen lists like this before, and yes, you may think you will not learn anything new or earth shattering. But, what if you could sit down at lunch with four of the most successful people on the planet and ask them what advice they would give themselves.

Right now, in this very moment, you have to decide, before you read any further, that you are willing to change something. Change your routine. Change your habits. Change your mindset. You literally cannot get up right now and go about your day without making a significant change. Otherwise, you will not change at all. "Change is hard but is necessary to succeed." - Elie Hirschfeld

“Significant” need not mean “huge.” Some of the smallest decisions can have the most impact. For instance, deciding to get up an hour earlier each day, or to give yourself an hour of “free thought” time before going to bed in the evening, are not huge decisions. But, they can be life-changing.

For example, deciding when and how to use social media, or what hours of the day to turn off your phone, may not be earth shatteringly difficult, but they could turn into the production you need to meet your goals this year.

1 – Pace yourself: It seems the world operates under the delusion that you have to work your fingers to the bone, and your mind to the edges of a breakdown, just to get ahead. Not so. It’s much better to plan ahead, set specific goals, and pace yourself. Burning out does no one any good. When you do reach the top, you will want to have the strength to enjoy it.

2 – It never gets easier, but it does get better: Look, what it takes to succeed is what it takes to succeed. There is no success without overcoming challenges… and this never ends. If you wake up one day and you are no longer challenging yourself or being challenged, you are either on the way out or on the way down. Life, particularly building a successful life, is difficult, but that’s part of what makes it beautiful.

3 – The right job is better than the “best” job: Too many people are never happy in their work life because they spend all their time looking for the “best” job, instead of the right job. Sure, these can be one and the same, but often, the “best” job is labeled that for all the wrong reasons. Look for work challenges that help you achieve your goals, not just jobs that “look promising.”

4 – Be honest about your talents

If you don’t learn early what it is you are good at, you will waste a lot of years listening to other people tell you exactly what you are not good at. This is not the way to build a career. Now, there is nothing wrong with having many talents, but you need to know who you are and what you bring to the table before you try to convince someone else of these things.

Whether you want to be a doctor or an entrepreneur, grasp these four simple truths – and then DO SOMETHING with them, you will set yourself head and shoulders above all the others out there “working hard,” and “trying to move up.”

Work with purpose.

David A. Steinberg of Zeta Interactive On Why Big Data is a big deal

If you wait for all the hype to die down, and all the dust to settle, it may be too late. Even as some industries are experiencing a myriad of benefits from Big Data, other businesses are sitting on the sidelines, watching and waiting. Well, that may feel safe to be a bystander, but two things are true about everyone who stands by and watches: first, they never reap the benefits of the action, and, two, they are not protected from danger by not participating.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at why Big Data is such a Big Deal and why you need to be both interested and informed. Data, and the compiling of data, are now an inescapable part of life. Everyone, everywhere is collecting data – from phones, to credit cards, to TV broadcasters, medical professionals, and transportation hubs. The flow is constant, and for all intents and purposes, limitless. Given the sheer immensity of the opportunity, it’s a cinch that someone would figure out how to both profit from the data – and to sell that profitability.

Several years of recorded benefits now prove the worth of Big Data extrapolation, and businesses that seek to realize those benefits are poised to outpace their competition.

But the caveat to all this – and the fact that makes Big Data wonderful – is that the benefit is not in how BIG the data is or how much of it can or is being collected. The major spark of the Big Data revolution is that, finally, all that previously lost data is now actionable, and can be monetized. And, as computing power continues to exponentially increase, the potential for action and profit increase along with it.

Add the human ability to solve puzzles and see patterns, to the ability of computers to crunch data, and you have a powerful recipe for success. But, Big Data also poses some risks and concerns. People wonder about security, about wasting time with frivolous connection exercises, and pattern searches. These are legitimate concerns that paint in vivid relief exactly why businesses should align their efforts with experts in the field.

Businesses have been reaping the benefits of Big Data for years, but the marketplace success has now begun to translate into academic pursuit. Major universities, such as MIT and Harvard, are seeing vastly increased interest in, and attendance at, coursework that involves or centers on data gathering and comprehension. That means the next generation of business leaders, researchers, and marketplace innovators will enter the workforce with a foundational understanding of the basics of Big Data. Big Data application will likely go from “new idea” to “business as usual” in less than a decade.

David A. Steinberg is CEO of ZETA Interactive, a leading big data company. 

How a Beverage Company is creating great PR by Rewarding people for Recycling

Recycling is one of the most important tasks everyone must follow everyday, but did you know it can also create a great opportunity for Beverage PR. With the hustle and bustle of life, it's tough to keep recycled items in the places they need to be. However, one beverage company is changing how this is done by offering to provide gifts and prizes for those who recycle. With recycling being tough to do, Honest Tea is trying to make a change one area at a time.

Honest Tea is the company behind this, and they have come up with a solution to bring the community together. They are providing gifts for every person who brings in enough beverage containers and any cups that can be recycled.

Some of their current gifts is an iPad Mini for every person who is able to collect around 2,500 containers. If you want to earn a Sole Bike, you can do so by giving the company 2,000 containers. Go Pro cameras are also being given away to people who bring in 1,590 containers. Skateboards are given for 750 containers, so they have prizes for nearly any amount you can think of.

Honest Tea is doing this in all kinds of areas. They have events called 'The Great Recycling Tour', and this tour allows them to go to different cities to get more and more people involved with recycling.

This tour and the whole idea has given them massive PR and attention, especially since they are doing good and allowing others to achieve great gifts for their generosity. This entire event started back in 2012, but it wasn't until 2014 where it suddenly became a national prominent event. Their growth over the past few years has enabled them to find the right people, go to the right cities, and promote the importance of keeping our earth clean.

The world is an ever growing vast system. We need to take care of our earth. Their goal by 2020 is to be a national prominent team that has inspired the nation. They're going to change the earth one city at a time. They are providing gifts to help people realize that they can receive rewards for their generous help, but they also want to continue helping the earth and showing them the greater reward of simply helping the world through recycling.

The Greenbrier Classic, Udi Avshalomov, and much more!

The Greenbrier Classic's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts are ideally positioned to complement the newly redesigned website. Fans looking for up-to-the-minute news and information about the tournament can follow The Greenbrier Classic on Twitter and Instagram at @GbrClassic (#GreenbrierClassic) and like the award-winning event on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenbrierClassic.

 Udi Avshalomov, CEO of 2 Feet Productions Inc a recent guest of the venue praised Greenbrier for the innovative change. Tournament officials announced today a new design for The Greenbrier Classic website, located at greenbrierclassic.com.

The updated site has been completely revamped to include a bold new look that captures the essence of the tournament while providing new features and increased functionality across smartphones, tablets and computers. The fifth annual Greenbrier Classic is June 30 - July 6 at The Greenbrier, the classic American resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV. In today's fast-paced society people are constantly on the move. Now, more than ever before, people are getting their news and information on smartphones, a variety of tablets and of course traditional desktops or laptop computers.

 The new GREENBRIERCLASSIC.COM works seamlessly across all devices to enhance your tournament experience, delivering content and site features specifically for the screen size of the device you're using.