Lara Kretler
Associate Vice President

Lara Kretler leads the social media practice group at Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations and is passionate about strategic use of the social web. Lara brings over a decade of online community building and social media expertise to her public relations work, leading several national accounts and provides strategic counsel, national media relations and social media strategy and support to other client service teams. She served global clients at national public relations firms in New York City and spent six years managing North American External Relations for The Iams Company, a division of Procter and Gamble. An avid social Internet user since 1994, Lara began building and growing online communities in 1998. She blogs about PR and social media at LaraKretler.com. She is a frequent, lively presenter about social media at regional conferences and meetings and will gladly connect with you via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or her blog.

By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

Put down your Blackberry and step away from the keyboard. Seriously.

Social media monitoring is important for countless reasons, many of which we’ve elucidated on this blog. But sometimes, a very real benefit of social media monitoring is to find cool opportunities to make genuine human connections with other people — the kind that can only happen face to face.

We had a great moment in random social media connections last week. As part of regular daily monitoring for both the Advertising and PR sides of our agency, we caught this Tweet by Jeremiah Owyang, a nationally renowned social media VIP, columnist for Forbes, and web strategy genius:

@fahlgren. I see you. http://twitpic.com/13s6d1

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By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

Before dismissing the Facebook color status meme as pointless, consider the results.

Last week, you may have noticed your Facebook status feed was overtaken by one-word color updates from approximately half of your contacts. The female half, to be precise.

It took most of us the better part of a day to figure out what was going on – and if you’re a guy, it may have taken longer to learn the secret.

The Facebook color status meme spread like wildfire via personal messages sent behind the scenes from one cluster of women or girls to the next. The message was simple: change your status to the color of your bra. Don’t tell any guys what’s up. Do this to raise awareness for breast cancer, and share this with all your women friends.

Quietly and with little fanfare (other than the occasional surprise – amidst generic-sounding status updates of “white,” “beige” and “black” – of startling “hot pink trimmed with maribou feathers” from your mother-in-law or a co-worker), this meme virtually took over Facebook. As more people began to catch on, there were small waves of backlash here and there — some female Facebook users refused to participate and dubbed it exploitative, while other Facebookers mocked the meme (some guys even facetiously played along).

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By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

Social media best practices may be simple, but that doesn’t mean they are easy.

We’ve all encountered that guy - the one who starts talking about himself or his business and just doesn’t shut up. Whether at a cocktail party, business reception or networking event, he’s the guy to avoid. No one likes to hear someone talk nonstop, one-sidedly, about themselves or their successes. So why do so many companies and individuals enter the social media space and do exactly that?

Our formula: 70/20/10

As Kelly Malone mentioned last week, our Fahlgren Mortine social media practice group has developed a formula to guide individual and corporate interactions on the social Web. This formula was originally created for our clients’ use on Twitter, but we’ve since begun using it to guide content strategy for blogs and interactions across all other social sites. The formula is based on more than a dozen years of observing, studying and participating in online communications between consumers and businesses. The ratio breaks down as follows:

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By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

The importance of walking the talk.

Business acceptance of social web applications - more commonly known as social media and social networking - turned a corner in 2008. Demand for expertise, counsel and programming related to the social Web continues to grow rapidly.

As a result, there are untold legions of social media consultancies, agencies and solo practitioners now positioning themselves as experts in the science and art of using the social web to market products and services or create online buzz.

This can be seen as scary, exciting or frustrating depending upon one’s perspective. As Fahlgren’s social media champion, I find it exciting - but I am also quick to counsel clients that whether or not you choose to work with us for your social media planning and implementation, it’s essential to work with someone who truly gets it and can back that up with proven results.

What kind of results? Social media programs that win awards. Client case studies that demonstrate the strategic, successful, measurable use of social web applications to achieve business objectives. And an online presence that shows the agency or consultant doesn’t just talk the talk but actually lives, breathes, works and plays in the social space.

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By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

Do you follow?

If you’re a fan of Twitter, the unique one-to-many microblogging service, then you know that Twitter people (aka Tweeple) are fond of lists. There are lists of journalists on Twitter, lists of Twitter-related resources, even lists of Twitter users in particular geographic areas, like central Ohio. Here’s a list we love of Twitter users in Columbus representing restaurants, entertainment destinations and shopping hot spots.

Now, we’ve put together our own Twitter list. Here are all of the Fahlgren Mortine staffers who Tweet - some more often than others - about public relations and social media agency best practices, PR industry news and trends, client contests and events, and more. Feel free to follow us - we follow back.

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By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

PR Students: Do you have what it takes?

By now, you may have read Paul Vetter’s post about why students should get into agency life. You may be wondering “how do I get started?” Well, here’s a great opportunity.

We are accepting applications for the Fahlgren Mortine Founder’s Award. Created in 2000, the award is named in honor of Walt Seifert, founder of the Public Relations Student Society of America. Each year, Fahlgren Mortine selects one college student as the recipient of the Founder’s Award Scholarship/ Internship, a premier program for public relations students. This award provides a paid, full-time summer internship and a $1,500 scholarship.

Although the Founder’s Award application process requires more than submission of a resume and cover letter, the application is not intended in any way to be intimidating. Think of it as an opportunity for you to display your outstanding creativity and talent. If selected, the return on your investment will far exceed the work you put in beforehand.

You can read more information about the award on the online application. If you’re curious about what it’s like to intern with Fahlgren Mortine, check out our Fahlgren Mortine PR Interns Alumni group on Facebook. Our intern alums can give you a sneak peak into what’s in store for you.

Good luck and we hope to see you this summer.

By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

Recently we teamed up with our friends at Webbed Marketing to present a free webinar about using Twitter for business. It was well attended and we got great feedback afterward, so we’re sure to partner on more webinars in the future.

In the meantime, you can view and download the Twitter presentation at SlideShare, where it is a featured presentation on the home page this week. If you haven’t visited SlideShare before, it’s a fantastic resource and truly allows you to access the “deep web” - information, statistics and entire presentations you would not be able to find using a search engine.

Is there a topic you’d like to see Webbed Marketing and Fahlgren Mortine tackle for our next webinar? Let us know. We’ll post all future webinar details here so you can sign up to attend.

By Lara Kretler, Associate Vice President

Our agency recently hosted Keith O’Brien, editor of PR Week, while he was in Columbus to speak at a Central Ohio PRSA luncheon. I had the opportunity to ask him whether he sees more PR agencies developing separate social media departments or integrating social media into the organization holistically. He said it was about half and half.

At Fahlgren Mortine, we are incorporating social media into everything we do for our clients. When we meet with a prospective client, we put their business and communications objectives through our social media prism to develop the best possible program incorporating both traditional and new media strategies. To do otherwise would be leaving opportunities on the table - and this includes media relations.

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