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The Purple Lounge

Our blog is an extension of The Purple Couch's mojo. Through this blog, we share ideas, thoughts and trends related to PR, marketing, digital media, communications and branding with a larger community (hence a lounge instead of a sofa).

 

Suzanne Rosnowski Moderates Real Estate Weekly’s Women’s Forum

By Kate O. > The Purple Lounge | Published February 21, 2012
 

Our very own Suzanne Rosnowski, Quinn & Co. partner and head of the real estate division, recently served as panel moderator for the first annual Real Estate Weekly’s Women’s Forum at the McGraw-Hill Conference Center in Manhattan.

Spanning a variety of experience levels and real estate sectors, the panel titled “Women Who Rule: CEOs and Founders Roundtable,” was comprised of Brooke Barrett, co-chief executive of Denihan Hospitality Group, Abigail Elbaum, principal of Ogden CAP Properties, LLC, Marilyn Kane, president of Iridium Capital and Michele Medaglia, president and CEO of ACC Construction. Leading the discussion, Suzanne uncovered these outstanding leaders’ secrets to success, including how they balance personal and professional responsibilities, how they got to where they are in real estate and what the decisions were that helped them achieve great things in the industry.

The first “secret” the panel dished was the importance of taking care of oneself in a world where women are constantly taking care of everyone else. Eating right, getting sleep and exercising are all ways to fine-tune your professional performance. All panelists agreed if you take care of yourself, you will create much more quality work.

The ladies also touched on putting emotions aside in a male-dominated industry. While it’s paramount to trust ones intuition, emotions and drama have no place in the professional realm.

Last, but definitely not least (as this is something we also hold dear at Quinn & Co.), the panelists talked about the importance of a team and a healthy work environment for that team. “Collaboration is so much more important than competition,” said Michele. Brooke agreed: “Don’t be afraid to surround yourself with smart people.” While it might be intimidating, these are teammates who will make you look good. All of the women, including Suzanne, know well how great leadership can propel a company into incredible success.

I personally enjoyed how professional, yet informal the panel was. To be quite honest, it was like watching a group of girlfriends chatting…while dispensing some invaluable advice! Congratulations to Suzanne and the panelists for a job well done!

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Candy Hearts with a PR Twist

By Stephanie P. > The Purple Lounge | Published February 14, 2012
 

Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us here at Quinn & Co.!

In order to win the hearts of NYC publicists, try giving them a box of candy hearts with some PR-swag.  Here are PR inspired candy hearts in honor of Valentine’s Day, from all of us here at Quinn & Co.:

1 ) U Have PR Legs

2 ) I’d pitch that

3 ) U R my +1

4 ) Can this be exclusive?

5 ) You had me at my Inbox

6 ) Let’s chat offline

7 ) iValentine

8 ) I’m Linked-In to you

9 ) Never release me

10 ) Buzz Generator

11 ) #IHEARTYOU

12 ) Pitch Master

13 ) U R Headline News

14 ) Be my feature story


 
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Pinning Down the Value of Pinterest

By Elizabeth W. > The Purple Lounge | Published February 10, 2012
 

The verdict is in: Pinterest – one of the newest social media sites to hit the market – is quickly becoming a powerhouse that is here to stay. As confirmed and examined by almost every tech/media blog on our radar, Pinterest recently blew past the 10 million unique monthly user mark, and did it faster than any independent site on record, according to TechCrunch.

What’s Pinterest? It’s a social image-sharing site that enables users to bookmark, organize and share items they come across online, simply by grabbing images from websites (this is called ‘pinning’) and posting them to virtual pinboards that are organized by topics or ideas. Users then browse the images collected on the site, and have the option to ‘repin’ them to their own pinboards. The great thing about Pinterest is that every image is linked directly back to its original source online, opening up a trove of new websites to long-jaded internet surfers, while ramping up traffic and SEO levels for said sites. For a full run down on how the site works, check out this in-depth article from BusinessInsider.

But fun and games aside, let’s look at the strategic application of Pinterest for a moment.

In November, we held a brown bag session on Pinterest allowing us to delve into the site’s ins-and-outs, share any initial experiences and learn from everyone’s questions and tips. Brown Bags are somewhat of a staple at Quinn & Co., and we often call them to bring our heads together and buck arising Integrated Public Relations trends. With only a few companies setting solid examples on Pinterest at that point in time, we were looking to explore how and if our clients across the Travel, Real Estate and Food, Wine & Sprits industries could tactfully use the site to their advantage. Here are just a few of our key take-aways:

  • A full commitment to the community’s existing culture of non-promotional sharing is required. Any client would need to bring value to other users by taking the time to curate and pin images, products, DIY tips or ideas found online, in addition to sharing those sourced from their own websites, products or marketing materials.
  • The image-driven platform provides a great opportunity to express brand identity and the intangible emotions one wants to associate with their company, product, building, etc.
  • A lot of value can be derived from Pinterest without joining the community, by simply encouraging people to pin images from one’s own website. The thought is that once images get added to Pinterest, they would organically be passed around and hopefully clicked, driving traffic back to the original site and dramatically increasing exposure.

I recently stumbled across an example of a well-respected voice in the real estate community that started to effectively leverage Pinterest. Inman News, a national leader in real estate news, education and events, is excelling on Pinterest because it encourages the community to interact with their pins through the topics they established for their pinboards.

One I am particularly fond of is ‘Home is Where Your Story Begins’. The board is a collection of emotive images and other unique tidbits that inspire the meaning of owning a home. Without featuring one pin that links to their own website, Inman is able to further its position as the ultimate source of industry information and advice for consumers and professionals.  At the same time, the company succeeds in initiating or deepening personal connections with readers. Also, Inman is able to capitalize on a whole new source of readers through Pinterest, who may have otherwise never come in contact with the company.

This thoughtful and compassionate use of Pinterest is what I believe will lead companies to succeed in this realm. I would even go as far as to define success as the ability to develop meaningful, lasting relationships with users, which could in turn lead to the creation of passionate company fans offline.

What do you think? What other companies should we be following on Pinterest?

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Back to PR Basics

By Kate O. > The Purple Lounge | Published February 6, 2012
 

Someone once said to me that four years experience in public relations was like ten years in any other profession. While that’s an exaggeration, this field is fast-paced and you adapt and learn, or you don’t and find something else. That said, it’s easy to think you’re a pro even in your first few years in this business. Even things we think are second-nature, such as online media list building, can prove that we are always learning.

During a Cision training with our interns, I learned about a handful of tools within the program I didn’t know. Embarrassing! There are so many time-saving tools that I was missing out on because “I had been building lists for years and didn’t need to know anything more!” How wrong I was.

Revisiting the basics of PR is imperative. Here are five things you can do in the next few days alone to “get back to your roots.”

1) Dust off the AP Style Book. Admit it, you got it in college and I guarantee there have been a lot of updates since even for the graduating class of 2011. There’s also an online version!

2) Revisit hard copy publications. So often we rely on a publication’s online content for the latest stories and updates on reporters. But many publications don’t post everything in their print versions online in an effort to keep subscriptions up. Walk away from the computer and pick up an actual copy of Financial Times or Wall Street Journal. One of the coolest parts of our office at Quinn & Co. is our library, which is chock full of print publications including daily newspapers, monthly magazines and more.

3) Pick up the phone. You know that archaic-looking device next to your computer? Cut away from email a bit and call clients for the information you need, or pitch a journalist over the phone, if you know they don’t mind that and aren’t on deadline. I’ve called to follow-up on many pitches when the journalist told me “I’m glad you called since I never received your email. Must have gotten stuck in my spam folder.”

4) Relearn the basics of the tools that make our jobs easier. In addition to Cision, we have more resources available to us to make our jobs easier today than ever before. Brush up on the basics of these tools so you can use them most effectively and efficiently.

Do you find yourself detaching from the basics in PR? If so, how to you reacquaint yourself? And what else could we add to this list?

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TRL Decade: The Pre-Social Media Community

By Nick S. > The Purple Lounge | Published February 3, 2012
 

Working in the field of public relations, we constantly strive to engage our clients’ audiences in new and unique ways. Social media is more important now than ever before, and a prominent way for companies to achieve engagement. These online communities weren’t always available, so what did companies do prior to the digital age? How did old-school communities evolve?

First, how is a community formed? I mulled this over recently, as I watched VH1’s Rock Doc: The TRL Decade. I grew up watching Total Request Live (TRL), a show of the top ten music videos, voted by fans for the fans. Everyday, I rushed home from school to die-hard fans (i.e. girls sobbing over N’Sync or Jay-Z) shutting downTimes Square just to watch their favorite musician on TRL.

Carson Daly, TRL’s first host, summed up the show perfectly when he said, “I will miss the community that was TRL.” This community filled up the streets ofTimes Square, traveled cross-country, spent 30 minutes calling into the show to talk to celebrity crushes, and most importantly, voted time and time again to see their favorite music videos. Talk about a die-hard community.

As a loyal member of this community, I never thought about the cultural influence of the show. What started in 1998 with just one host and a TV monitor, eventually exploded in the 2000s into a phenomenon, defining a generation; one that Daly feels “will never happen again.”

Before the time of Twitter, TRL fans interacted with their favorite celebrities by calling in, sending comments, videos, etc. Some lucky audience members even filmed 15-second shout-outs that played during the videos. Today, YouTube replaces this outlet, allowing users to upload videos and share commentary. Instead of ranting over the phone to a friend about how poorly an artist lip-synced on the show, for example, I would now post my frustration on Facebook with a status update.

TRL was the pre-cursor for what social media has become to Gen-Y. Fans began to explore the possibilities to connect within a digital community, whether they voted for their favorite videos online or posted in the Britney Spears message board on the TRL webpage.

Ironically, TRL VJ alumni believe social media is the reason the show ended. Fans no longer needed to watch the show to participate in the pop-culture community. Do I think digital evolution is negative? No. The TRL era is something I will always appreciate. The creators of the show were able to organically produce a community fan base without Facebook updates, tweets, and blog posts, which I believe will never happen again.

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