3 Resources for PR/Social Media Pros & Small Biz Owners

There have been so many great resources coming my way lately, I just had to share. ‘Cos you know, that is what Iizallabout!

So let’s get to them.

1. The daily PR & Marketing calendar of event hashtags

Time was there was a “season” for conferences. Now, it seems there’s a conference pretty much every day of the week, sometimes more than one. It’s tough to keep track of all of them, isn’t it? Not to mention keeping track of the various hashtags that are associated with them.

So Valerie Simon created this handy-dandy calendar that lets you do just that. I asked Val to tell me a little more about it, and she said:

“As a former Washingtonian and WWPR member, I try my best to follow Debbie Friez closely when she tweets from a Washington Women in PR event. I miss the excellent speakers and camaraderie, but Debbie’s tweets allow me to maintain a connection to the group and continue learning from my desk 230 miles away in New Jersey.  Of course there are numerous PR industry events, from local meetings to international conferences, that I would like to follow on any given day, but where is a simple calendar of all of the daily PR & Marketing hashtags?

“Since I couldn’t find an existing calendar, how about we get one started? Here is a very simple editable calendar, the daily PR & Marketing calendar of event hashtags, we can use to build that resource. The next time you head to a PR or Marketing industry event (be it a luncheon, conference, awards ceremony, etc.), please take a moment to add the hashtag. Likewise, stop by and check the calendar each morning, or at least each week, to identify what special industry events to follow.”

I love this idea!

2. Get it in writing! A free ebook from Solo PR Pro

This is the brainchild of Kellye Crane and Jenny Schmidt, and it’s truly a gem. It’s a fabulous ebook that walks you through the most important elements to include in your consulting agreements, gives you examples of agreements … and it’s free.

When the ebook was published, I looked at it immediately, and I thought Kellye and Jenny did a great job of it. It is really really really important for all of us – not just the service providers, but the businesses who are availing themselves of those services, to have our agreements in writing. Believe me, you do not want to embark on a contract without one.

And I’m going to stress that as much as this is valuable for PR pros, it’s equally valuable for small business owners. A few weeks ago I spoke to a friend’s client (with the friend on the phone), to give them some PR advice (they asked, I didn’t assume they’d want it!). They were having trouble with their-then PR consultant, and I walked them through how I’d approach the work.

And when I asked about the contract – because all of mine include a termination clause, which either party can initiate – there was silence on the other end of the line.

No one wants to believe someone will mess with you on purpose. But crap happens. So protect yourself in writing. Go get the ebook now.

3. Another ebook: Public Relations 2011: issues, insights, ideas

This has been a long time coming your way (at least from me), but my guess is that for at least some of you, it’ll be new. Craig Pearce put this together, and it’s a very interesting read with perspectives from practitioners from all over the world. Unlike Kellye’s and Jenny’s ebook, you do have to subscribe to Craig’s blog to be able to download the ebook (but hey, if you don’t like his blog, you can always unsubscribe, right? Though I don’t think you will).

I particularly liked Paul Seaman‘s essay (and you should definitely be reading Paul’s blog on a regular basis), entitled “Let’s talk sense about trust and CSR”. Here’s an excerpt:

“PRs, of all people, should not take things at face value. Supposedly, there’s a crisis of trust in society. The way to fix it, we are told, is to advocate more transparency, more corporate responsibility, more fairness and better corporate governance. Let’s plaster the whole edifice with apple pie whilst we’re at it.

“But is there really a crisis of trust? Or are we in danger of making the wrong diagnosis and recommending the wrong remedies?

“We are being asked to believe that Western firms, governments and other institutions have lost the trust of the people. We are told, as a consequence, they risk losing their licence to operate.

“But the Edelman Trust Barometer reported last year that Russian business is more trusted than Germany’s and France’s. It asked us to believe that business in Brazil, China and India (trust levels 60-70%) were way above those in Canada, Japan and the US (50-59%).

“Surely, such findings should sound warning signals and inspire us to question the premises of this debate about trust?

“If you are not convinced, then just consider so-called political trust. China’s government, according to Edelman, is the most trusted on earth at 74%, compared to the US’s measly 46% (in the Obama era) and the UK’s 38% (pre-David Cameron) which, we are asked to believe, is on a par with Russia.”

There you go. I hope these are helpful – please let me know what you think.

And if you have resource gems to share, I’d love you to leave ’em in the comments below which are, as always, yours.

Image: Theen Moy via Flickr, CC 2.0