Source:
https://www.podbean.com/eau/pb-es7a5-158396a

In this episode, Karen and Michelle discuss the pitfalls of blindly following trends in the PR and marketing world. It’s important to keep strategies aligned with a brand's core values and mission. “Going viral” is not a meaningful goal if it doesn’t translate into meaningful engagement or revenue.  
 
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Transcript
Michelle Kane (00:17):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves. People like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and as ever, my wonderful co-host, the Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you today?
Karen Swim,, APR (00:35):
Hi, Michelle. I'm nice and dry, which I understand is not the case with many across the country.
Michelle Kane (00:41):
So true. This is true.
Karen Swim,, APR (00:43):
How are you?
Michelle Kane (00:44):
I'm well. I'm well. By the time this airs though, this will have been at least a week or so ago, but we're in the midst of February, which shouldn't be a surprise that you get a big dump of snow, but it was definitely one of those storms that was supposed to be a nothing that turned into a something which always shakes up the day. I am spinning this for myself in that the cover of snow is making this rare sunshine that much brighter. So I'm soaking all that in.
Karen Swim,, APR (01:09):
Yeah, and the sunshine has definitely been rarer. This year I went ahead and invested in a happy light for myself because I was being affected by January where we had endless days of gray, dreary dark zero sunshine.
Michelle Kane (01:26):
Yes, yes. That is a wise investment. I had one of those and it broke, and I've yet to replace it, but given that I have a dark sense of humor, I'd make myself chuckle that even my sad lamp broke. I love that you call it a Happy Lamp. What do you do when sad lamp breaks.
Karen Swim,, APR (01:46):
Well, you replace it.
Michelle Kane (01:51):
Oh my goodness. So yes, being that, oh goodness, we're at that wonderful time in winter where we're smack between the Super Bowl and the Oscars.
Karen Swim,, APR (02:03):
Yes.
Michelle Kane (02:03):
Which for some is our own Super Bowl, but that's a topic for another day. But it brings to mind trends. Clients will see something that has hit the pop culture psyche in a way that everyone's talking about it, and next thing you know, we want to do something like that too. How can we take advantage of this? And I said that in that particular tone because it's not always appropriate, is it?
Karen Swim,, APR (02:31):
That's so true. And of course we have all had those clients that maybe saw something go viral and they want you to do something for them that will make them go viral. Of course, we all know as communication professionals, just as we can never guarantee media placement unless it's a paid opportunity, paid ethical opportunity that we can't guarantee whether something will go viral or not. No one knows what will go viral. That's sort of the surprise and the fun of it all is that you never know what's going to grab hold. And by the way, going viral doesn't always necessarily translate into revenue. It can translate into a fun moment. So I do think that for professional communications people as well as marketers, it's important to sort of have a framework that you can share with clients like a decision tree. And we talked about this before as it relates to social justice issues and things that are happening in the external world, you have a series of questions that you can work through, so that helps the client to become a little bit logical about whether or not this is something that they should tap into.
Michelle Kane (03:49):
I love that. I love that it brings to mind, I had the pleasure and good fortune a few years ago to sit through a nonprofit board training as far as creating your vision, your mission, and the most important of all was just bringing home the point of viewing everything through that lens. Because whether it's a nonprofit or a corporation and you're trying to think of marketing ideas, if it doesn't pass the muster of passing through that lens of let's say in this situation, what are your goals for your public relations? Then even if it's the best idea in the world, that might be fun. If it's not going to solve for one of your distinct goals, you may want to say, yeah, it would be great if we put time and energy into this, but is it really going to be the best use of our resources? Is it going to really provide what we're looking for?
Karen Swim,, APR (04:44):
I love that. That is such smart advice, and it's interesting because we as PR pros, we love tapping into trends and we love spinning analogies and we'll take a metaphor and we will metaphor it to death and it's fun. I mean, th