According to The New York Times and ABC News, Facebook has announced a new initiative aimed at increasing the number of worldwide organ donors.  Facebook members will be able to include their organ donor status in their personal profiles, a new feature intended to create awareness and peer pressure to sign up on donor registries.

Imagine the potential impact of this type of effort.  The Times reports that 7,000 Americans die each year, waiting for organ transplants.  An important medical need could be achieved, if even a fraction of Facebook’s 161 million U.S. members become organ donors.

Beyond the potential benefits to medical care, this initiative also enhances the reputation of Facebook at a critical time.  Much of the public equates Facebook with frivolousness, but this new effort makes the company look good by doing good for society.  Perhaps it is coincidental that the organ donor campaign was announced as Facebook prepares to release its IPO.  Perhaps not.

Social media can have a powerful effect on business reputation by humanizing an organization and demonstrating its depth of character.  In this case, Facebook has shown that it is committed to more than friends, fans and finances.  By adopting a similar approach, your company can project its own individuality and commitment to social responsibility.

Most will remember Dick as the host of American Bandstand, the television show that shaped popular music for three decades, and as the master of ceremonies for his annual New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.  Yet few realize his greater impact on our popular culture, and even fewer know about the incredibly vision that enabled him to succeed and become a true television innovator.

I had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Dick Clark in 1990 as part of the public relations team that opened his American Bandstand Grill in downtown Miami.  Ever the entrepreneur, Dick would come to town for a few days to manage progress on the restaurant before returning to California to oversee his massive production company.  He and his wife, Kari, made final decisions on all aspects of the project from architecture and management to decor and menu.

Already a venerated broadcast legend, Dick could have easily delegated his restaurant project to others or given it token supervision, but that was not his way.  All of his projects had to meet his exacting standards of quality and taste, which required his personal involvement.

That is the way that he built Dick Clark Productions into an Emmy Award-winning television powerhouse.  Dick always had his fingers on the pulse of popular tastes and was determined to develop the next new wave in programming.  This drive led him to produce some of the earliest reality series on television, extravagant awards broadcasts, fabulous music specials and internationally popular game shows.

In the golden age of television, Dick Clark Productions was one of the few entertainment companies with shows on all three major networks and in syndication.  Television executives knew that Dick Clark produced winners and they regularly hitched rides on his ever-rising star.

In 2004, Dick suffered a stroke that hampered his ability to walk and speak.  It must have been particularly difficult for this man — one of the most recognizable voices in broadcasting history — to struggle for words.

Yet he returned to television in 2005 to once again usher in the new year and give a passionate kiss to Kari at the stroke of midnight on his national New Year’s Rockin’ Eve telecast.  He continued to do as recently as this year, becoming a hero to fellow stroke victims everywhere and a highly visible reminder of the power of perseverance.

Dick Clark was a star both in and out of the spotlight.  He was a true gentleman whose presence and influence will be missed.

My recent visit to the website of a major regional professional firm revealed a blog filled with “canned” articles that obviously originated from an outside writing service.  The format and length of the postings suggested that they probably were intended for newsletter use and were ill suited for blog format.  There were no replies or comments, which suggested that other visitors were as bored as I was by the content.

Clearly, this blog is meeting its perceived obligation of posting regular entries. However, it is missing the opportunity to generate enough interest to motivate dialogue.

Blogging requires some thought and time, but the rewards are worth the investment.  Your entries need not be lengthy.  In fact, many of the best blogs are able to express wonderful ideas and raise questions for discussion in just a few short paragraphs.

By writing in your own voice and sharing your own perspectives, you can turn your business blog into a reliable vehicle for new business development.  Just think of your blog as an opportunity, not an obligation.

This year, Spring is providing signs of a recovering economy, spurring hopes of new business development and resulting increases in profitability.  In an effort to encourage growth, organizations should be examining their public relations and marketing budgets to capitalize on the growing optimism in our economy.

Recovery relies on focused, creative campaigns that underscore brand recognition, reputation and promotion of the superior products or services.  So it is reasonable to invest in invigorated, integrated communication programs that will create heightened awareness and resulting competitive advantage.

With the arrival of Spring’s warmer breezes and renewed economic optimism, this is time to plant the seeds of energetic new public relations and marketing campaigns.  In business, as in agriculture, this process will bear fruit and produce a greater yield with proper care and cultivation.

That is the message that Arianna Huffington expresses this morning in an extremely insightful column about the mass media’s “fetishism” with social media. She points out the media trend of covering the most popular topics posted on Twitter or Facebook, and questions why more important issues of our time do not receive equal coverage.

“Our media culture is locked in the Perpetual Now, constantly chasing ephemeral scoops that last only seconds and that most often don’t matter in the first place, even for the brief moment that they’re ‘exclusive,’” Ms. Huffington wrote.

The same principle is true for businesses and organizations implementing social media as a communications strategy.  It is more important to utilize social media as vehicles to inform and engage than to merely react to the trend of the moment.

All forms of media have one distinct quality in common.  Content is king.  The means of communication alone is secondary to the ability to convey something meaningful, leave a lasting impression and elicit an intended reaction.

By all means, execute the social media component of your communications campaign, but consider your content carefully, and publish ideas that are truly meaningful to you and your audience.

- David Stiefel

In market after market, many of the most familiar firms of regional attorneys, accountants, financial planners, architects, engineers and other professionals have closed or changed their brands.  The result is a once-in-a-generation transitional situation in which large numbers of valuable clients are seeking reliable replacements for the professionals they once trusted.

Using aggressive public relations and marketing strategies, newer professional firms are gaining competitive advantage.  They recognize the current void as a rare opportunity and are promoting their brands with renewed vigor to capture the attention of prospective clients.  The result is a shift in the balance of power and a rise of firms with the strongest identities and most persistent images.

Now is the time for professional firms to become marketing savvy and take advantage of the changing order.  Soon the doors of opportunity will close and a new hierarchy of perceived leaders will take hold.  Timing is everything in this process of change and the victors will be the firms whose professional skills are currently coupled with progressive communications strategies.

- David Stiefel

Innovative business is much like Jazz, combining disciplined analysis with unbridled creativity to produce breakthrough ideas and products.  That is the message of  a wonderful article that appeared in the most recent  New York Times Sunday Business section.

The article took much of its message from the ideas of John Kao, one of America’s most brilliant business educators, authors and consultants, who also is a talented Jazz pianist.  His two insightful books, Jammin’  and Innovation Nation, are “must reads” for anyone interested in business success through creative processes and organizational transformation.

Jazz is a musical art form with its roots in strong musicianship and creative improvisation.  Similarly, business development benefits from conditions that combine strong foundations and inventiveness.  As Kao points out, when companies combine left-brain and right-brain approaches, breakthrough concepts often follow.

- David Stiefel

As always, Michael offers more than a few “teaching moments” for those interested in the finer points of reputation management, publicity and marketing.

http://www.bulldogreporter.com/dailydog/article/fineman-pr-releases-its-annual-top-2011-pr-blunders-list-penn-state-herman-cain-oak

Many of the remaining candidate have expressed plans to skip this one, but current frontrunner Newt Gingrich will be there.   It will be interesting and perhaps somewhat distressing to see discover how many voters tune in anyway.

In recent months, the GOP debate series has taken on all the qualities of a reality show.  Candidates declare positions without effort to remain on topic or fear of followup questions.  They duck and dodge, take potshots at one another and compete to determine who hates Barack Obama with the greatest passion.

Viewers watch to witness the minor dustups between candidates and the trivial posturing that substitutes for statesmanship.  And they evaluate what they hear and see with the same criteria applied to a nighttime soap opera.  Will Rick Perry step on his tongue again?  Can Gingrich overcome his serial marriage problem? Will Michele Bachman embarrass herself again with another misstatement of American history?  Will Mitt Romney overcome his apparent case of schizophrenia?

Now, the final indignity with the selection of Trump as moderator of a debate scheduled just days ahead of the Iowa caucuses.  Long ago, a journalism professor of mine warned us of the danger of “infotainment,” the practice of confusing real news with public amusement.  The downward spiral of this year’s GOP debates demonstrates the prescience of this admonition.

Perhaps this extreme exercise in bad judgment will return some sense to the campaign season and re-introduce some seriousness to political discourse.  Then again, perhaps the importance of real substance has been lost in today’s perplexing media environment.

The lesson for all serious communicators should be to avoid confusing entertainment with relevance.

By David Stiefel

Listen and you’ll hear many in the over-30 generations ask the same questions again and again. “How can they be a movement without a leader?”  ”Why can’t they issue a united statement that clarifies what they want?”  ”How can they speak as individuals and expect anyone to understand their cause?”

Somehow, the “Occupy” movement continues to grow because so many younger people do get it.  So obviously, its message is getting through to a critical audience.  Then, why is there such a generational divide and what does this say about the future of mass communication?

The answer is quite simple.  Social media have changed the way a new generation deals with information, as well as its perceptions of relevance.

For those of us still old enough to rely on traditional media, we are accustomed to a “theatrical” form of communication.  Our media present to us and we receive.  There is limited opportunity for dialogue between presenters and audience.  So we need spokespersons, position papers and precise definitions that enhance our understanding.

For those who receive their information from the Internet, social media provide opportunities for dialogue.  News and opinions are presented and lead to online conversation.  Therefore, there is less dependence on the talking heads and staged news conferences that fuel the traditional media.

As a result of this dynamic, those involved in a social media dialogue are in tune with one another, but those outside their “conversations” may not understand.  This type of insular communication can create movements, but often can fail to persuade the masses.

Any movement seeking to strengthen its position must be able to reach out to the general populace and convince others of its merits.  Yet the need for dialogue and discussion remains a critical component of promoting acceptance.

Perhaps the next major advancement in digital media will find a solution to these apparently opposing objectives, but until that happens, a healthy mix of traditional and new media remains the best recipe for effective communication and expressive dialogue.

By David Stiefel