It’s Important

We know vacations are a boon to our mental health, and we might have some awareness that they’re beneficial to our physical health – but chances are vacations are even more important than you realize. Taking part in leisure activities is shown to lead to lower blood pressure, lower stress hormones and smaller waists, and one study found vacations lead to a significantly lower risk of mortality. That’s right – taking a break from time to time can actually contribute to your long-term survival!

Interestingly, even if we have an understanding of the benefits vacations offer our bodies, it’s often harder for us to recognize that vacations are actually critical to being effective at work. Do you know that some scientists have found that stress shrinks your brain (an effect that can be reversed after a period of rest)? Even small vacations actually change your brain waves, leading to improved reaction times, clarity and creativity.

So, when you jokingly (or not so jokingly) exclaim, “I need a vacation!” the truth is, you really do.

For me, because I’m truly nutty as a fruitcake and addicted to goal-setting, I often make mental health-related goals for myself that I hope to achieve while on vacation. During some breaks, I seek to jump start my creative juices by trying new things, while other times I pause to reflect on the directions I’m taking my business and my life. This time, I’ll be doing something especially radical: striving to turn my thoughts off almost completely – to be 100% in the moment, with no thoughts whatsoever (no easy feat for an OCD gal like myself, but I’m hoping it will lead to a helpful recharging).

What vacations or mini-breaks do you have coming up this summer, and what do you hope to accomplish (or avoid) as a result? Let us know in the comments, and if you haven’t decided when your next break is, start planning!

Image: Meawpong3405 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

For example:
I love to sing — but no one ever accused me of being the next American Idol. I’m more of a sing-a-long at the pub after one too many-kind of singer. No use trying to pursue it any further than that – no one would pay me to sing, so I don’t focus my time on making that happen.

On the other hand, I’m pretty good at large-scale project management: corralling disperse people, companies and information to make a long-term program work or a big deliverable come together within deadlines. Over the years, a number of clients have paid me pretty well to do this activity, and I have the gray hairs to prove it. I’ve discovered that though this can be a lucrative business offering for me, I’d rather work with someone else to manage the truly enormous projects.

What does this mean for you?
These are just a couple of my own personal examples of knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. It’s often a challenge to stay centered and not get pulled away from our areas of focus, but recognizing what to relentlessly pursue – and perhaps even more importantly, when to pass – is critical to avoiding burnout and thriving as a successful, profitable consultant.

If you haven’t lately, be brutally honest with yourself and take some time to think through where you should be focusing. Share your experiences and decisions with us in the comments!

I’m not really interested in belaboring the debate (if you’ve been reading marketing blogs for a while, you may have seen it’s a pretty tired topic). To me, there’s nothing more boring than an unnecessary, hair-splitting debate over semantics. But I think it’s interesting to consider that connotations change over time, and as PR pros it’s our job to adapt.

Most people familiar with the term personal branding have never heard of the shysters who gave it a bad name in the early days. To them it’s something altogether different. I’ve managed to avoid the term by talking about authentically building your profile, visibility, credibility, reputation and awareness. But when you say personal branding, people know what you’re talking about more quickly, and virtually all of the “normal people” (outside the social media fishbowl) associate it with the alternative words we use instead.

I’m arguing that “personal branding” as a term has moved beyond the literal translation of the two words contained in it.

Modern, established professionals – the wise readers of this blog at least – know that human beings aren’t something to be talked about “like a shampoo” (believe it or not, there was a book written that said exactly that). They know that putting your best foot forward doesn’t involve faking it, and no one I’ve spoken to has even heard of the controversy around the term (in fact, I recently learned that one of the largest mentoring organizations in the U.S. has a “Brand Me” session as part of its program for disadvantaged youth).

So, there’s no use in fighting it – personal branding as a term seems here to stay. If the vast majority of people are using a term to refer to something, but you refuse to say that term and instead insist on using other words, aren’t you sort of like Martha Stewart saying “herbs” with a hard “h”?

Everyone has their line in the promotional sand (and mine tends to be more conservative than most), but that conservatism will no longer include a ban on the term “personal brand.”

Very interested to hear what you think in the comments. Do you have any negative connotations associated with term “personal brand”? Have you ever changed your use of terms you once avoided?

If you’re like me and you got a panicked phone call from a client at the last minute, asking for help on their Facebook timeline images, or you procrastinated on your own personal, professional, or solo PR pro timeline cover designs, (also like me), this post is designed to provide emergency help to the non-designers out there (you guessed it… that’s me!).

These are stop-gap measures that will buy you some time until you can work with a designer to improve the overall look and feel of your Facebook Timeline presence.

Square Logo?

Most organizations use a logo for their Profile icon, which is now included as the small square inset at the top of the page. While much has been made about the challenges of the larger cover photo, for businesses, the square logo requirements of 180×180 pixels is often the most problematic. If the logo is rectangular in nature, Facebook will stretch and squish it to make it fit, usually resulting in very bizarre looking images.

Use our emergency cheat below to fix it, using Picknik (until it goes dark on April 19) and/or good old PowerPoint:

Picknik (or the image editing tool of your choice)

1. Upload your logo to Picknik, and use the crop tool to remove unnecessary space around the key design elements (provided your client’s branding guidelines don’t prevent this)
2. To take it a step further, you can also take key brand elements of the logo and add text to the image in Picknik, creating a makeshift square version of the logo

PowerPoint

1. In PowerPoint, draw a rectangle
2. Right click and select “size and position”
3. Change the dimensions to  2.4 x 2.4 inches
4. Make the Fill color consistent with your brand identity
5. Insert your logo as a picture and size/position it so that it appears centered within the square
6. Right-click and select “save as picture”
7. Upload as your page’s Profile image in Facebook

For Solo PR PRO Premium members, we’ve done this work for you and uploaded a template for your use.

Cover Image

A number of sites have posted Photoshop Facebook templates to use, however if you are not a Photoshop user, there are other ways to cheat this. One caveat: make sure you’re aware that Facebook has guidelines around what can be in the cover image. Basically, they don’t want these images to be cheesy, word-filled (“buy it now!”) electronic billboards.

Use a Template

There are some easy-to-use (and free) Facebook cover template sites. If you’ve ever created a photo holiday card online, the tools will probably feel familiar to you. These templates generally ask for permission to post to your Facebook page, and they’ll add an update stating you’ve used their app. They’ll also probably include a small logo as part of your cover image. I used Cover Photo Magic for my personal page, and it was very simple and quick to do.

While this method is most applicable to an individual page, some solo PR pro pages and small businesses may be able to use them as well. For example, a restaurant or retail store may be able to post images of their location within a template.

PowerPoint

Similar to the method described above for a Profile image, PowerPoint can be even more helpful when you’re trying to build a cover image.

1. In PowerPoint, draw a rectangle
2. Right click and select “size and position”
3. Change the dimensions to  2.1 x 5.66 inches
4. Make the Fill color consistent with your brand identity
5. Insert an image or images and size/position them so they’re aesthetically pleasing within the rectangle. You can use existing client/product images, or use stock photos that capture the essence of the brand.
6. Right-click and select “save as picture”
7. Upload as your page’s cover image in Facebook

For Solo PR PRO Premium members, this work is also done and included in the premium template available for you to download.

As noted above, these methods won’t replace a designer. But if you or your client are staring at a wonky-looking Profile image and a blank gray cover image on your Facebook page, these emergency measures just might fit the bill!

Have you uncovered any other methods for addressing the Facebook Timeline design changes?

Find a PR Consultant and New Business Leads

Many of us are contacted by companies looking for PR assistance, and we find they aren’t a good fit for our own businesses. In the past, when you didn’t know where to send them, it could create a sticky situation. Or perhaps as a solo PR pro yourself, you’re looking for a collaborator in an area where you don’t have any current contacts.

A new solution is here: the Solo PR Pro Find a PR Consultant public form, and the associated PRO member New Business Leads feature. The fact that new business leads submitted through this form are posted exclusively for the savvy Solo PR PRO premium members provides a key benefit to those using it – it means the organization (or you) won’t be bombarded by every Tom, Dick and Harry looking to make a buck.

There’s no fee for either the submitter or the consultant, and Solo PR PRO does not act as an intermediary. This service is simply provided as an easy way for organizations and independent PR consultants to find each other and begin the discussion/proposal process (both sides are encouraged to do their due diligence).

Show Me the Money, Part Four: Project/Value Pricing, Retainers and More

The Show Me the Money! course now includes almost 80 pages (and counting) of detailed, specific advice on how much to charge and how make your business as profitable as it can be. In the fourth installment, released today, we look at how to move beyond hourly billing to more lucrative arrangements. Checkout the Learning Center to see all the educational materials now available – more added each month.

Some of you may be thinking this is a weird way to do a launch (even a soft launch) – providing all the announced features and a ton of content while there’s still a day left to get in on the beta. Of course, you’re right! We just wanted to make sure our regular readers and community members have every opportunity to see what’s available and take advantage (you can cancel any time).

We have a lot more planned for the membership site in the coming months, so stay tuned and please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments below!

The following is a guest post from Jenny Schmitt, founder of CloudSpark.

I’ve had the same boss for nearly seven years now. In that time, I’ve had one pay raise, I’ve worked nights, weekends, holidays and compromised on vacations and family time. To be fair, my boss isn’t a complete dictator, I did get maternity leave twice (both times were unpaid of course) and I do have some flexibility in my hours and how I complete my work.

But this year, this year I want more. I want a better boss.

As a solo PR pro, I find that I’m the hardest boss I’ve ever had and yet, I’ve invested very little in defining how I will reward myself as an employee. When I worked at agencies and managed teams, I made sure my team got bonuses (if possible) and I made sure benefits extended beyond the employee handbook. We took afternoons off and went to the movies. Or we took a longer lunch out to someplace new. Or we took a cooking class for a creative break. I constantly looked for small ways to reward good work and encourage creative thinking. Now that I’m managing the team of me (and sometimes “we” when I have virtual partners) I realize I’ve let down my only employee. And this year, I’m changing the benefits and bonuses that I’ve too-long ignored. How?

1. A full rate review.
In seven years, I’ve raised my rates once. Despite winning awards, despite gaining top-notch industry knowledge, and despite gaining expertise, I never took more than a cursory look at my compensation. (Disclosure: Kellye Crane and I author the Show Me the Money! Series on the Solo PR PRO member site, it’s all about setting rates and financially succeeding as a solo PR pro.)

2. Investing in a monthly creative break.
Once a month, I’m taking work time off for a creative break. The only rule to this one is that it can’t be professional development; it has to be completely unrelated to work. For example, take a horseback riding lesson, go see a movie, take a cooking class, go to the aquarium or a museum. Whatever it is, it’s scheduled time away from traditional work hours and it’s an endeavor that is meant to wake up the right side of my brain.

3. Defining new boundaries of when I’ll work.
This one is more difficult because the office is a mere 15-second commute. I’ve committed to no more client (read: billable) work on the weekends and to at least two laptop-free nights each week. No more Skype-ing with clients who happen to see I’m there in the evening hours, no more promises to have something by the next morning when the assignment comes in after 3:30pm. Someone smarter than me called this “setting boundaries.” I’m only surprised it took me this long to set them.

4. Building in vacation days and holidays.
I’m at a point in my career where if I worked for a traditional company, I would qualify for four weeks of vacation a year (if not more). So this year, I’m taking four weeks off. I’m setting aside a week in the Spring, two weeks in the Summer, and the week between Christmas and New Year’s as real vacation days (e.g. no laptop, no conference calls, no quick client calls). I’m also going to take traditional holidays, days in previous years I looked at as bonus days to “catch up on work,” like Memorial Day, July 4th, the day after Thanksgiving. And if I’m feeling radical, I might just take Columbus Day too. I’ll be sure to communicate it in advance with clients and assure that they understand these are times I’ll be unavailable.

It might seem like a short list, but it’s a start. To define the benefits and bonuses for the year ahead is to redefine the value I give to myself as an employee. And that, is certainly a start to being the better boss I want.

What’s your boss going to do for you this year?

Jenny Schmitt is a veteran public relations and marketing professional and sought-after conference and keynote speaker. Nearly seven years ago, she founded CloudSpark, an award-winning Atlanta-based strategic communications company. Jenny brings a solid foundation of business strategy development, communication expertise and marketing experience to match a client’s immediate needs or their long-term vision. She serves on the board of PRSA Georgia and the Atlanta chapter of Women in Sports and Events.

In addition to the downloadable transcript in PDF, the following highlights some of the most popular tweets from the chat:

Be sure to check out the transcript in PDF for the full discussion. Note that the transcript is in reverse chronological order.

If you weren’t able to join us this week, weigh in on the chat questions below!

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

The following is a guest post from Lisa Sirkin Vielee, owner of Gracie Communications.

Heather Rast’s recent blog about creating a conversation (or social media) calendar provided a great planning tool for integrating social media into an overall communications strategy.  Social media is distinguished by its two-way, conversational elements. So it may seem unnatural to suggest planning content for a medium that seems so spur of the moment.  But, as Heather points out, it is crucial to “learn accepted language, tone, voice and style” as well as plan content that is more likely to be shared and retweeted.

It isn’t as hard as it may sound. Heather’s planning calendar outlining possible topics for your social media work is a great first step. At Gracie Communications, our next step is to create story arcs around key messages and events to make sure we are providing opportunities to engage followers and resist being overly promotional.

What is a Story Arc, Exactly?

Think back to your favorite book. It had a beginning, a middle, a climax and an end, right?  It probably also elicited an emotional response; it made you cry or laugh or gave you something to think about.  Good social media campaigns, like books, can build suspense, create interest, and give followers something to think about as well as a chance to weigh in.

Creating a story arc can help you map out this kind of interaction and interest in what you are saying on social media channels. The best way to explain is with an example. Let’s say your client asks you to use social media to as part of the public relations for a conference. Pulling from content you’ve developed for media releases and stakeholder communications, your story arc could look something like this:

• Chapter One:  Promote the date and time of the conference by creating a Facebook event and sharing with existing followers
• Chapter Two: Build excitement by introducing the keynote speakers and key panelists. Use photos, video links and blog posts to give a taste of the topic.
• Chapter Three: Engage the audience by inviting them to virtually interact with the speakers

1.  Invite reviews of books and previous speeches
2. Ask for questions prior to conference to share with speakers

• Chapter Four: Create a “who’s who” list of attendees

1. As the event draws near, acknowledge those with social media presence who are attending

• Chapter Five: Logistics – share parking, registration, lunch details, event hashtags, wifi connections and other details that show the customer service side of the conference
• Chapter Six: A couple of days before the event, ask people to share what they are looking forward to the most
• Chapter Seven: Live Tweet and/or post from the conference itself

1. Video posts with speakers and attendees
2. Key statistics and information
3. Encourage others to do the same (reach out to key stakeholders using offline tactics as well as online)

• Chapter Eight: Share testimonials after the conference from event surveys

1. Invite others to share lessons learned online

• Chapter Nine: Blog new findings
• Chapter Ten: Thank organizers
• Epilogue: Invite attendees and others to provide input into the next conference

This story arc offers more than the who, what, where, when, why of the event.  Followers will learn a little bit about the experts prior to the conference, which may encourage them to come learn more. They’ll see what is important to their peers within the industry from the comments section. Media contacts will see visuals that are available for possible broadcast or podcast. Most importantly, a story arc helps maintain the all-important conversational tone necessary for social media. (Think of it as a book club discussion for your social media communications plan.)

Does this kind of planning take more work? Absolutely. But it also gives you an opportunity to create deeper client awareness and position your client as a well-connected source of information.

Gracie Communications owner, Lisa Sirkin Vielee has more than two decades of experience in the communications industry and has trained a wide range of nonprofit, government and small business clients on social media best practices.  Gracie Communications also offers strategic communications planning, public relations and writing services. Prior to forming her own business, Lisa served as Deputy Press Secretary for Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan, where she provided marketing and media guidance to nearly 70 state agencies and coordinated high-level campaigns. She also has served as director of communications for the 2001 World Police & Fire Games.

By Kellye Crane and Heather Rast

PR consultants that move away from excessive team emails and adopt a useful solution for collaborative project management are able to take on bigger and more lucrative client work. In this series, we help you make sense of the myriad of options by sharing our experience with a few of the top systems.

In Part One, we covered free collaborative project management tools. In Part Two, we focused on “freemium” and low cost options. In this third and final installment, we look at three tools designed to meet more robust needs, including those of larger groups servicing multiple projects or campaigns.

Basecamp

The granddaddy of project management software, this 37 Signals product is road-tested and large team approved.  You can get a taste for the software by signing up for a free trial which allows you to create one project with up to 10MB of storage for files.

Pro tip: Break big (even if they’re ongoing) projects down into more granular components like month, quarter, or subset. It will be easier as time goes on, messages stack up, and milestones get added, to go back and find something later.

PROS:

• No contract required, pay as-you-go. Plans start at $24 per month for 15 projects and unlimited users
• Recommended by 98% of the people who use it. That’s a remarkable satisfaction rating, and the fact that it’s so widely used means your subcontractors and/or clients may already be familiar with using it
• Provides a calendar feature that allows both events and milestones to be applied. If your work is date-based, then these can be good ways to capture progress to completion
• Create lists of standard tasks and assign people to complete them. Re-use the list on your next project or create new task lists based on milestones or whole projects

CONS:

• The dashboard can be jarring to someone joining a project mid-stream. Unless you’re familiar with a projects’ background and goings-on, the dashboard doesn’t really help orient new users at all
• It doesn’t provide a way for a project leader or administrator to view all tasks assigned to a specific team member
• Available via mobile browser, but no native mobile application

Central Desktop

Central Desktop is a full-featured online collaboration tool offering many of the same functions as Basecamp, plus some additional benefits, including online diagrams such as flow charts, org charts, and wireframes. You can also open, edit, and save Microsoft Office documents while within Central Desktop.

PROS:

• Extremely powerful program, with excellent tutorials and help documentation
• Allows custom branding (colors and logo), a nice way to extend the look and feel of your brand into the tool touched often by employees, vendors, and clients
• Integrates with Microsoft Office products (Office, Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• A mobile app is available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry operating systems to help you stay current while on-the-go
• Keep engagement high by pushing out messages to team members via Twitter and Facebook

CONS:

• The price is out of reach for most solo PR pros. Workgroups start at $99 per month and jump directly to enterprise-level workgroups (price isn’t published). The basic workgroups allows for up to 30 users and 50 GB of storage with 5 workspaces. On a price point level, Central Desktop is expensive compared to Basecamp and DeskAway
• The Wiki-based interface is very customizable. While the flexibility is a definite advantage, it could easily be a case of not knowing how you’d really like spaces to be arranged and organized until it’s full of information and active members. At that point, it could be cumbersome to pivot

DeskAway

DeskAway (affiliate link) is used by the team here at Solo PR Pro. After a lot of research and trials, Kellye decided DeskAway was the best blend of powerful features, usability, and price to serve as the central hub for work across all her projects and teams, including client programs, business projects, the Solo PR PRO Premium membership site, and the Solo PR Pro blog (she even uses it for personal tasks, as well).

Want to dip your toe in the water to understand why she digs it? While all the plans have a 30-day free trial, there’s also a limited-functionality free account that offers access to 1 project for 2 users, with 25 MB of file storage (unlike others with a 30-day trial, there’s no time limit on that one — upgrade at any time).

PROS:

• Simple sign-up process, and a credit card isn’t required (who likes giving that info before committing to buy?)
• On the$25 per month plan, subscribers receive access to 25 projects and 20 users, sharing 2 GB of storage space and 5 project templates.
• Unlike Basecamp, DeskAway provides Getting Started videos and how-to links directly on user dashboards. This makes it easy to set up a new user, then allow them to get acquainted with the system at their own pace
• Numerous options for sharing information among teams (from an internal blog to file uploads) means you can pick the methods that work best for you
• One of the few collaboration solutions that allows you to easily view all the tasks assigned to a single team member, and it includes powerful reporting options
• Includes a basic time-tracking feature, that can be integrated with the Freshbooks invoicing solution
• Provides for 3 levels of user permissions (Super, Regular, Limited), which offers tight team member controls
• Branding is available; use your own logo and colors to customize the look of your work space
• Synch your Google calendar with your DeskAway calendar to simplify scheduling
• Import Basecamp projects into DeskAway should you decide to migrate from one tool to the other

CONS:

• It’s not very intuitive, so there is a learning curve initially, and the user interface isn’t beautifully styled
• There are a lot of options packed into each tab and sub-menu, making it easy to get lost or derailed from the activity you set out to perform
• The mobile version is lacking (Kellye gets around this by using the full Web version on her iPhone)

All of these programs integrate well with email, meaning users can reply to tasks by email and their comments are stored within the system. That makes this most basic functionality easy to use for new (or more limited) team members, without requiring them to dive into the more complex features.

No matter which tool you choose, once you’ve entered your projects and timelines, the process becomes much easier — get started today for a more organized tomorrow!

What’s your favorite project management solution? Let’s learn from each other in the comments!

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks

For me, I purposely selected this day to release some new deliverables and features for the Solo PR PRO Premium membership site (including Part Three of the Show Me the Money! course, which includes comparison info on what other PR consultants are charging, and our new PRO Premium members-only searchable database). I’m also taking this opportunity to announce that the PRO Premium site will emerge from beta one month from today, on March 29.

Though a bit cliché, sometimes these little calendar reminders can help remind and prod us to pause, reflect, and take the next step down our career paths. Setting the above Leap Day goals for myself certainly served as an ongoing motivator for me.

What would you like to accomplish by the time the next February 29 rolls around, in the year 2016? What can you do to start leaping ahead today? Be sure to let us know your goals and accomplishments in the comments!