Posts Tagged ‘Amy Schwinge’

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Mary Beth West Consulting Wins “Best in Show” and Sweeps Evening with 11 Awards at PRSA Ceremony May 12

Friday, May 13th, 2011

PRSA Honors Kevin Painter of LeConte Wealth Management with Community Service Award

Maryville, Tenn. — Mary Beth West Consulting, LLC, a public relations and reputation management firm in Maryville, Tenn., won “Best in Show” and multiple top honors at the annual awards dinner of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Volunteer Chapter on May 12 at Hunter Valley Farm.

The event also honored Kevin Painter of LeConte Wealth Management with the Community Service Award, which recognizes an individual or organization who has used public relations practices to improve the quality of life within East Tennessee communities.

The agency won “Best in Show” for the 2010 holiday media relations campaign for Dandy Lions as well as 10 “Award of Excellence” honors in the following categories:

  • Public Service: Blount Education Initiative
  • Media Relations: Dandy Lions 2010 Holiday Campaign
  • Public Affairs/Government: Expanding Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Scientific User Community
  • Marketing Consumer Products: Rainscapes
  • Marketing Consumer Services (Financial): LeConte Wealth Management
  • Marketing Business-to-Business: Interactive Springboard 2010 Launch Campaign
  • Writing (Column): LeConte Wealth Management “Purpose-Built Portfolio”
  • Collaterals (Direct Mail): Rainscapes 2010 Direct Mail Campaign
  • Website (Professional Service): Rainscapes website
  • Blogs: Mary Beth West Consulting “In the Profession” Blog

Joe Bogardus, Mary Beth West, Amy Schwinge, Mallorie Mendence and Tyra Haag following the V Awards ceremony.

Interactive Springboard – a collaboration between Mary Beth West Consulting and Knoxville-based Blue Media Boutique – shared top honors for the newly redesigned Avistelé website; Avistelé Lifestyle Communities is managed by Knoxville-based RenaissancePG.

 “I’m so appreciative of the clients we’ve been privileged to serve,” said agency principal Mary Beth West. “Throughout my career, I’ve held tremendous respect for the public relations profession; my team is honored with the overwhelming response by our colleagues to recognize the work we so highly value.”

Painter – a graduate of Maryville High School and co-founder of LeConte Wealth Management– was  honored with the Community Service Award.

“Kevin has been a client for three years and a dear friend for many years longer,” said West. “Of all the colleagues I have in my age cohort in the local community, I can think of no one who takes on more community service efforts to support the non-profit, social service and arts sectors than Kevin.” 

Established in 2003 and located in the Law Building in downtown Maryville, Mary Beth West Consulting works with clients to advance their communications, relationships and reputations to meet business objectives. 

The firm’s services include integrated brand marketing communications strategies and campaigns; media, community and employee relations programs; social and interactive media strategies and program management; crisis preparedness; and special events.

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Why is Building Your Brand with Public / Media Advocacy Important?

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011

By Amy Schwinge, MAOM

Recently, someone gave me a newspaper clipping that highlighted the dangers of letting an infant child sleep in the same bed with his or her parents and how this always should be avoided. It was no coincidence that I had just given birth to my son, our second child. It is amazing how much “advice” you get when you have a baby, especially the unwanted advice in my situation.  If you haven’t been through the process, you are in for a treat. By the way, I agree that the safest place for an infant child to sleep is in his or her own crib.

Anyway, getting back to the newspaper clipping, I noticed that the clipping was taken from an opinion/editorial column that a concerned citizen had written; it wasn’t even written by an expert, per se.  This hit home to me just how much influence the general public and the media have on some people. The person who gave me the clipping implied that it must be true since it was in the newspaper. I think that a person’s perception is his or her own reality, as the saying goes.

The more that a company or organization can build its brand within the media, the better its public perception will be, which ultimately will improve the bottom line.

The landscape has changed in today’s world as anyone in the public can make online comments on just about anything, including online newspaper articles, product reviews on retail websites and popular social networking sites.  With this immediate access, it is even more important for organizations to make a concerted effort to build their brand by tapping the voices of their supporters via public and media advocacy.  Research has shown that consumers trust each other much more than they will trust what a company says.

Jeremiah Owyang of Forbes shared the following five steps for an organization to develop an advocacy program: 

1.) First, get ready internally.

2.) Find the right advocates who will represent your brand.

3.) Build a relationship for the long term.

4.) Give them a platform–but do not pay them.

5.) Integrate them into your business and recognize them.

These steps seem simple in concept, but they will go a long way in terms of building an advocacy program.

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Building Strong Media Relationships

Friday, February 11th, 2011

by Tyra E. Haag
@tyratuckerhaag

Building solid relationships with the media can seem like you’re walking a tightrope – one shaky move and you’re done.

It’s easy to say, “I want to have a good relationship with the media,” but it’s another thing to actually have one.

There are a few ways to describe the daily encounters I face as a media relations coordinator — give and get, push and pull or yin and yang.

Building strong media skills takes practice, but it’s important to remember not to go at it alone because working with the media is not for everyone. That’s why professionals like us exist.  We’re here to help take the burden off our clients of what to say and do with the media so that they can focus on what they do best – run their company.

Here’s my personal media relationship-building philosophy:

  • Be sincere: No one likes a fake. I can’t do my job without solid media skills, so it’s always best to practice the golden rule when it comes to pitching story ideas, following-up via the phone or exchanging information through e-mail. A simple thank-you can go a long way, not to mention a nice hand-written note of appreciation.
  • Stay informed: Keep up-to-date with topics going on in mainstream media – locally and nationally. Utilize editorial calendars to see what is top-of-mind for these news organizations and fit them to your clients’ needs where appropriate.
  • Do your homework: Don’t waste their time or yours. Be sure to research who you need to contact before picking up the phone or hitting the “send” button. Make sure what you’re pitching on behalf of your client is actually interesting and newsworthy.
  • Get creative: Meet for lunch, go out for coffee or ask for a 15-minute chat with whomever you want to get to know better. A face-to-face encounter can take you from an unknown individual to a trusted and respected news source.

Bottom line: I can’t do my job without having a strong relationship with the media.

For more information and tips about building strong media relationships, please visit the following media-related topics previously posted on the MBWC blog:

Media Relations: What Works (Part 1) and Media Relations: What Works (Part 2) by Tyra E. Haag

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It’s All about Doing the Right Thing

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

By Amy Schwinge

What is ethics anyway? According to http://www.merriam-webster.com/, ethics is “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.  a : a set of moral principles : a theory or system of moral values <the present-day materialistic ethic> <an old-fashioned work ethic> <an elaborate ethics> <Christian ethics> b the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group <professional ethics> c : a guiding philosophy d : a consciousness of moral importance <forge a conservation ethic>.”

As part of promoting the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA’s) September Ethics Month, several of my colleagues have blogged about the details of the PRSA Code of Ethics and Member Statement of Professional Values, which does an outstanding job of outlining professional ethics.   

Very early in my career, I worked with a manager who always focused on “doing the right thing” in running the business and in the way he treated people.  During strategic planning meetings and when talking with him, he always said, “We need to do the right thing.”  He seemed to do the right thing as the company flourished while he was the executive in charge.

Honestly, I didn’t realize the impact that this manager had on me until I started writing this blog entry.

When I find myself in a position of questioning what I should do either in a professional or personal setting, I always ask myself, “What is the right thing to do?”  Then, I try to make the right choice (and generally, I get it right most of the time).  My hubby may not agree with that statement, but I won’t get into that.

Getting back to the subject of ethics, I think what most people learned in Kindergarten could be applied to ethical behavior in adulthood as well.  Not to oversimplify ethics, because “doing the right thing” can be complicated, but whenever you have a question about what is wrong or right, think back to the basics that you learned as a child.

I believe that my five-year-old daughter in Kindergarten gets the concept of ethical behavior. Even though she may not always do what she is supposed to do, I believe she knows right from wrong. She actually keeps me grounded sometimes, especially with her honest, blunt questions that children can ask. My daughter said “that wasn’t right; he shouldn’t have done that” when she was telling me about an incident when one of her fellow classmates “got in trouble.”

Here is the bottom line:  whether it’s treating people the same way you would want to be treated or conducting business, just try to do the right thing—you usually won’t go wrong.

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Early Employee Involvement Impacts the Brand

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

By Joe Bogardus

Last week my colleague Amy Schwinge had a great blog post titled “Don’t Forget the Employees.” It was a piece on how employee communications impacts a company’s bottom line.

Humbly, I will try to build on Amy’s excellent ideas using a real-world, real-time experience in which MBWC is currently engaged.

The agency has a client that is considering re-launching its brand. They are insisting their company employees be involved in this process. This involvement is something we would normally recommend, but the insistence the client has exhibited on this matter is laudable.

The company is in the service industry. They believe, and rightfully so, their people are their brand. We are in the process of developing a battery of qualitative and quantitative research studies relative to brand messaging and other insights that need to factor into the process. Our first studies will involve individual and group interviews with key personnel in the company to grasp their understanding of the brand. This exercise will not only be informative to us but also will act as an ownership-building activity for the company’s employees. They are going to be involved in the process right from the start and will be informed as the process continues.

In her piece, Amy stressed keeping employees informed about critical company matters. We are presently fortunate enough to be working with a company whose management believes in this principle and is taking the concept an important step further by involving them in the development of the company’s brand re-launch at its inception.

The company believes if its employees feel fully vested in the process, it will positively impact their performance. With the company view that their people are the brand – and we know that brands are assets – this approach should support long-term revenue growth and corporate valuation.

It’s a great example of the two-way communications Amy references, and it’s gratifying to see this process happening first-hand, starting right at the beginning of a major company initiative.

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Don’t Forget the Employees…

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

 By Amy Schwinge

Some companies overlook the importance of a key audience: their employees.  This week’s post will focus on how the employee communications aspect of public relations impacts a company’s bottom line. 

Believe it or not, shareholder returns for organizations with the most effective employee communications were 29 percent higher from 2002-2006 than firms with less effective communications, according to a recent Watson Wyatt study. 

A great deal of research has been conducted related to how employee communications really affects a company’s bottom line.  You would think that common sense would say that well-informed employees would be more productive than less-informed employees, similar to how happy employees are more productive.  Surprisingly, many organizations fail to grasp that wisdom and put it into actionable results.

I had the opportunity to work with T.J. and Sandar Larkin (her name is really Sandar; this is not a typo) when I worked at Boeing and at General Motors.  The Larkins have conducted decades of research on how employee communications impacts productivity and the bottom line. 

I particularly remember how their research showed that rumors negatively affect the bottom line.  Usually, rumors run rampant when there is a lack of information or major uncertainty within an organization.

At Boeing and GM, internal communication was tracked as an organizational scorecard metric that was based on the results of employee surveys.  These metrics measured if employees were aware of key messages in addition to employee perceptions.

Since employees serve as ambassadors for an organization (however formal or informal that role might be), they should know the company’s vision, mission and key objectives.  In addition, employees should be communicated with first regarding a major change, or they should at least have access to information at the same time as media are notified. 

Forbes.com recently reported on the results of an employee survey that found 87 percent of employees thought organizational communications were one-sided and focused on positive information. 

With that statistic in mind, two-way communications processes must be included in the communications strategy. Organizations must remember that it is imperative to listen to – not just talk “at” – employees and take action to respond to employee concerns as appropriate.  Also, the good, the bad and the ugly still needs to be communicated openly and accurately – not swept under the rug.

“Keeping it real” in terms of responding in a sincere and authentic way to employee concerns will boost management’s credibility with internal stakeholders, and in the process, facilitate employees’ trust in their employer and positive attitudes toward employees’ role in the company’s success. 

So, the final take-away here: remember your employees!  Communicate with them AND listen to them; act when appropriate.  It will only help your bottom line…

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Putting the “Relations” Back into Media Relations

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

    By Amy Schwinge

We hope you have found our blogs focusing on media relations for the month of May useful and interesting.

Not trying to toot our own horn (well, maybe a little), the team at Mary Beth West Consulting is honored to have received multiple awards from the Public Relations Society of America this spring, including several for media relations and related strategic communications tools.

I thought I would share a little background on what we did to receive some of these recognitions, particularly with respect to managing media relationships effectively.

As a first example, we kicked off our public awareness campaign for the Blount Education Initiative (BEI) with a news conference.  On that front, make sure you have content to support inviting media to a news conference.  In this day and time of limited budgets and resources, the last thing you want to do is ask a journalist to leave the office for a news conference if what you have to share could be sent via an e-mail. 

The BEI news conference was appropriate, because we had newsworthy – and rather detailed, statistics-driven information – to share, along with introductions of the leaders driving BEI’s mission to make education the local community’s top priority.  We released compelling results of a new survey outlining current perceptions as related to education and quality of life for the area.  We also introduced the media to the “faces” of the Blount Education Initiative as they explained the reason and need for BEI’s existence along with a summary of BEI’s strategic plan.  This news conference also allowed us to meet many of the journalists face to face with whom we would be working during the public awareness campaign.

For LeConte Wealth Management, we met with members of the media individually whenever possible to introduce and recommend LeConte as financial experts on a host of topics and advocates for financial literacy.  We also shared numerous consumer finance issues-driven news releases to spread the word.

As a third example, we had a dual strategic plan for national publications and local coverage for Todd Richesin Interiors, and we didn’t have the luxury of meeting the national media face to face.  In order to cut through the clutter of other media pitches received by such publications as Traditional Home and House Beautiful, we launched our relationship building with editorial decision makers by carefully ascertaining what specific types of projects and design personalities they were covering and queried them on both subject matter and information-receipt preferences they found useful.  We then sent photo-intensive information kits about Todd and his work, including written “case study” profiles of his work style and individual approach for each project.  We were able to forge relationships with local media and national publications alike, resulting in Todd receiving a great deal of local and national coverage, such as:

  • An eleven-page spread highlighting one of Todd’s projects in Key West, Fla., in Traditional Home (June/July 2010 issue)
  • Traditional  Home (March 2010 issue): “20 Young Designers to Watch”
  • House Beautiful (December/January 2010 issue): “Next Wave of Top 20 Designers”

Collectively, these examples show that each client is different, so a different media relations approach is warranted for each.  Don’t try cookie-cutter formulas; they don’t work.  Remember, it is called media “relations” for a reason; you must take the time and effort to establish genuine relationships with your media contacts, focused with their own audiences in mind.

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Achieving Work-Life Balance

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

By Amy Schwinge

What is your definition of work-life balance ?  I think before you can achieve work-life balance, you have to define what it means to you.  Work-life balance is a relative term that can mean different things for different people.

First of all, I would recommend identifying the priorities you want to achieve in both your personal and work activities.  Then, focus on those priorities, and plan the rest of your life around those priorities.

Many of you probably are thinking that this is easier said than done, right?  Well, it’s a start.

I like to follow the advice of Albert Einstein who said, “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

I would imagine that most of us are moving rapidly in this day and time, and the balance is more like a juggling act.  The key is to channel that movement into your top priorities.  Whether your priorities are balancing family, work, volunteer activities, religious activities or school, list your top priorities of each, and attempt to achieve those goals in a manageable schedule.

According to worklifebalance.com, “Work-life balance does not mean an equal balance. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. Life is and should be more fluid than that.

Your best individual work-life balance will vary over time, often on a daily basis. The right balance for you today will probably be different for you tomorrow. The right balance for you when you are single will be different when you marry, or if you have children; when you start a new career versus when you are nearing retirement.”

For me, I strive to exceed the expectations and goals of our clients and my manager at work while spending as much quality time as possible with my family in addition to teaching online classes from time to time.

Recently, I had a Daughter-Mommy day with my five-year-old, and in her words, “It was the best day ever.”  We went to lunch together, her gymnastics class, then shopping.  While at the mall, she asked if she could get her ears pierced—kind of out of the blue.  Whenever the subject of getting her ears pierced had come up in the past, my husband and I always told her it was her decision IF and when she wanted to do it.  So, she did get her ears pierced—with no tears surprisingly. She was on top of the world, and so was I. We had a great rest of the evening as a family when my hubby got home from work. I definitely achieved my family balance that day!

What are some examples of your work-life balance?

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Corporate Social Responsibility Makes a Difference

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

By Tyra Haag and Amy Schwinge

“No company can exist in a vacuum.” 

That’s the message Scripps Networks President John Lansing sent to attendees at a recent Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) meeting on Corporate Social Responsibility.  Lansing’s message was simple — keep a community healthy and you promote better employees, potential employees and a strong community.

Lansing’s main points included:

  • Success as a business is intertwined with employees and community
  • Businesses should be altruistic in nature
  • Keeping the community around you healthy is the true Return on Investment
  • A community is special because it’s intentional

Scripps Networks even gives their employees paid time off (PTO) to volunteer, which does not count against their vacation or sick days. 

Of course, this concept is nothing new to the folks at Green Mountain Coffee Company. In fact, the company gives employees 52 hours of paid leave each year to volunteer in any way they choose (in addition to their PTO, sick or vacation leave). 

Green Mountain Coffee Company also produces an annual Corporate Social Responsibility report every two years, and nearly half (45 percent) of all the company’s waste is recycled each year.

Green Mountain Coffee Company’s two main concerns are social responsibility (hunger / poverty reduction) and environmental responsibility (solid waste / energy use reduction).  The company even allocates 5 percent of their pre-tax earnings to these causes. 

Businesses have the power to be a positive change agent and Green Mountain Coffee Company is hoping other businesses will join in their efforts.

The bottom line:  make a difference and make a profit.

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