When I first joined Kaplow and told my mom I was hired as a Community Producer, she was thrilled for me, but had absolutely no idea what that meant – I got a complete blank stare.

I understand that there is a generation gap between us – she loves Johnny Mathis and Criminal Minds, while I love Drake and Watch What Happens Live. But more than our differing entertainment preferences, my mom was a teacher and when she told other people what she did, they got it. For those of us with careers in the evolving world of social media and PR, the idea of what we actually do every day is a little less clear.

So how do you convey what you do every day to a parent?

I explained that brands need someone to tell their story to the thousands (if not millions) of fans they have online. I told her that brands have to be accessible in this age of the “super-consumer” and that I help do that.

Bringing a brand to life is what I love most about this job. It gives me a chance to be creative and give a little bit of flavor and humanity to things, like body lotion and hair products. You might not think a face scrub could be personified, but I assure you, it can!

Take St. Ives, for example. Their products are filled with fresh ingredients, are available at drugstores nationwide and provide simple, classic and effective skincare solutions. Our fans are passionate about their skin and love talking about their favorites and why they love them. Customers have so many options to choose from nowadays; we love helping St. Ives fans feel like they can identify with the brand and that we are listening and want to hear from them.

Interacting directly with fans is increasingly important in order to develop a loyal relationship between them and the brand. Consumers are inundated with choices. If you don’t make that personal connection with them, they will find another brand that will. It’s my job to make sure that they feel appreciated and loved, because they are!

So, after numerous conversations, I think my mom sort of understands what I do for a living. And if after a few more months she still doesn’t get it, I will be the first to suggest a “Bring Your Mom to Work Day” at Kaplow.

When you’re a consumer-facing company, it’s important to remember the responsibilities that come with that designation – keeping up with the Joneses, sustaining the happiness of your employees and clearly delivering your overall brand message to the public. A key way to accomplish all of the above is choosing the right Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative that aligns with your business model.

As we have already seen, CSR programs are becoming key fabrics of any successful business. The realization that companies can and should play an important role in their communities—and across the nation and around the world—while making a profit, is quite a step up from the past.

That is awesome news because strategic corporate social responsibility executed well is effective corporate social responsibility.

Since I absolutely hate negative examples, let me share two positive ones. Take Skype’s social good initiative, Skype in the Classroom. Skype in the Classroom came into existence quite organically. Various teachers all over the world sent emails to Skype saying they used the service to share stories and projects with other classrooms around the world.

From the overwhelming response, Skype created Skype in the Classroom, a free global community that invites teachers to use Skype to connect their students with others to collaborate on classroom projects, as well as share ideas and inspiration. So far, Skype in the Classroom has 28,000 members and growing.

Another favorite is Godiva’s newly launched CSR program. As homage to their leading courageous heroine, the company recently launched the Lady Godiva program. This national and local campaign celebrates women who give back to their communities and inspire others with their selflessness, generosity and leadership.

This US program will recognize an inspiring woman and support the national charity that she is passionately committed to.  Godiva will also launch a local component through an online community, where regional nominations will be shared and allow Godiva to recognize and honor local community leaders and their causes.

As you can see from Skype and Godiva, these companies strategically chose the right CSR initiatives because they kept these three ideals in mind:

• The right CSR initiatives can increase your brand equity
• CSR does improve consumers’ view of firms when it’s seen as a good fit and socially motivated
• The most successful CSR programs are the ones that have consumer engagement

So, take note my fellow CSR hunters and choose wisely.

We all know that national print and broadcast are the “Holy Grail” to clients, but there is a certain allure to local and regional coverage as well. Perhaps it’s the appeal of having your grandma see your product mentioned on her local news channel or reading about your event in her hometown newspaper.

Whatever the draw, it’s undeniable that regional news has credibility to its loyal audience and therefore should be a target we take seriously in our outreach. Here are a few things I’ve learned to keep in mind when pitching locals:

1.       Do Your Homework

Especially when pitching local broadcast, do a quick Google search of the city before you dial. There might be sunshine in New York City, but a tornado watch in St. Louis. You’re not going to make any friends if you call in the middle of that. Also, if you were never quite sure where Tulsa was on the map, or how to pronounce Des Moines, now is the time to find out, so you can speak credibly about the city.

2.       Adapt, Adapt, Adapt!

I’m sure your PR cover letter said you were detail-oriented, flexible and adaptive. Put those skills to use when pitching local media! Especially on the phone, take cues from the person you’re speaking with. This will put them at ease, increase the chances that they’ll want to engage with you and hopefully, agree to what you’re asking. For example, when pitching media in Charlotte, NC, I found that I was more successful if I spoke slowly and started the conversation by asking the person how their day was going. In New York City, I’d get hung up on for that.

3.       1 Mile: 100 Miles

You’ve heard the observation that people are more concerned if one person dies one mile away than if 100 people die 100 miles away. Apply that to regional outreach. When pitching local breast cancer walks for the Avon Foundation, we generally have more success securing interviews for local breast cancer survivors than for the president of the Foundation. I know this may come as a shock to our New York-centric sensibilities, but sometimes even a celebrity has less appeal to the folks in your hometown than your grandma does.

There’s been one theme that has come up in every conversation here at SXSW: LISTEN. But the context of this worthy advice has varied widely.

For budding entrepreneurs, it is vital to listen and acknowledge the users’ needs. We happen to be in Austin with one of our clients, Brian Cohen, the Chairman of the New York Angels, who also holds the distinction of being the first investor in Pinterest. As he explains in this Mashable article, the site’s success was rooted in their commitment to listening to smart people throughout the development process. Had the founders of Pinterest missed a simple observation in their early users’ behavior, the site likely wouldn’t be the phenomenon we’re seeing today – getting nearly 12MM unique monthly visitors with the average user spending 89 minutes on the site.

For brands, there is, of course, a lot of discussion about the need to listen to what consumers are saying about your brand online. This was illustrated very poignantly by a case study that was presented during a panel titled, “The Sports Fan in 2015.” The panelists talked about Nike Basketball’s “Black Mamba” campaign: a microsite was built around an alternate persona of Kobe Bryant – each time 1750 tweets per hour used the hashtag, #MambaMoment or talked about Kobe, the site would dynamically change and unlock access to exclusive content for a six hour stretch. This inherent ability to respond to users’ interests in real-time is a perfect illustration of what listening is all about. It gives brands the opportunity to become even more relevant to a topic that is of high interest at any given time.

In fact, there are dozens of vendors (both new and established) hawking social media listening, monitoring or management tools here in Austin. We hope to spend time with them and see which are best suited to help our clients listen to what the online community is saying about their brands. The practice of listening will ultimately make your brand’s engagement with fans more authentic and impactful, which will, in turn, result in greater brand loyalty.

Kaplow was on the scene at Wednesday evening’s CEW Product Demonstration at the Metropolitan Pavilion!

Check out the below video from Kaplow’s own Adrienne Klein to hear what this CEW-hosted event was all about and the new beauty trends we spotted on the floor.

Don’t forget to check back with us in May when we will discuss all the winning beauty innovations after the CEW Beauty Insider’s Choice Awards ceremony!

Did you know that one in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime? And that most cases of violence aren’t reported to the police? Before I started working with our client the Avon Foundation for Women and their Speak Out Against Domestic Violence programs, I wasn’t aware of these alarming statistics.

Last week, I was lucky enough to staff and help draw media attention to an important event for my client’s Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program at the 2^nd World Conference of Women’s Shelters. On February 28, the Avon Foundation held a luncheon to recognize the best global communications campaigns and programs that are bringing attention to the need to end violence against women.

Avon Global Ambassador & Honorary Chair of the Avon Foundation for Women, Reese Witherspoon, presented the awards and launched a new fundraising product just in time for International Women’s Day (March 8). And yes, she looked as beautiful in person as on screen!

The product Reese unveiled is the latest addition to Avon’s fundraising empowerment collection, the Circle of Support Necklace. One hundred percent of the net profits from the sale will benefit Avon’s Speak Out Against Domestic Violence programs.

The Circle of Support Necklace features the infinity symbol, which represents the limitless potential for women and is really quite beautiful.  International Women’s day is this Thursday and I hope you will help us celebrate by buying a necklace for yourself, friend, wife, sister, mother or daughter.

More About the Circle of Support Necklace:

• Available for only $5.00
• 100% of net profit from this product ($3.71) will be donated to the Avon Foundation for programs dedicated to ending violence against women
• Domestic Violence Resource Guide included with purchase
• Empowerment products are available through Avon Sales Representatives in more than 50 countries by calling 1-800-FOR-AVON or by visiting www.avon.com
• For more information about Avon’s efforts to end violence against women around the world, please follow Twitter hashtags, #AvonSpeakout and #IWD or visit www.facebook.com/avonfoundation.

Awards season is big in the beauty industry, which always means an overload on “Get-the-Look” red carpet trend pitches in media’s inboxes.  So how can you make your pitch stand out from the crowd?  Here are some strategies to break through the clutter:

Timing is Everything – The day after any awards show, you can expect online editors to be flooded with an overwhelming amount of post-show pitches.  The old adage, the early bird gets the worm applies here, and it pays to send your pitch out the night of an event rather than the next day.  Another tactic: send the pitch the week prior to an awards show with a pre-awards prep focus.  While the pitch has to be more general and can’t include night-of images, it allows the products to take center stage and gives bloggers a different type of content to share.

Collaborate Cross-Agency – By including multiple brands in one pitch, you can offer a more complete translation of how the chosen trend or celebrity look is achieved.  This approach takes the pitch beyond a singular focus to offer editors a head-to-toe guide to the look.  It also appeals to a wider audience by offering more variety.  Once the conversation is started around one brand, it opens the door to pitch others.

Write from the Blogger’s Perspective – Since media is tasked with rapid, of-the-moment reporting around awards shows, write your pitch content and tips from the perspective of your contact to minimize editing on their end.  We’ve found that many times when pitches are written this way, bloggers will copy and paste the text almost word for word, ensuring quality coverage and key message pull-through.

Add Expert Input – While we may start to feel like beauty experts thanks to our constant pitch creation and proximity to industry leaders, it helps to include tips from the real thing!  Insider tips from an expert can help your pitch stand out from the pack and provides editors with the kind of proprietary content their readers crave.

The Oscars may be over but these tips can be applied to pitching other widely covered events like blockbuster movie premieres, fashion week and celebrity studded festivals throughout the year.

Case-Mate CES 2012 Recap

As a fashionista living in Manhattan, the thought of going to the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was quite intimidating. After all, I prefer a PC over a Mac and my old BlackBerry to the new iPhone 4S. Let’s face it; I just learned how to tweet.

Knowing I would be surrounded by savvy techies and cutting-edge consumer electronics, I even contemplated toning down my wardrobe, but I didn’t have to, as I was at CES with Case-Mate, the leader in fashion forward mobile tech accessories.

As a virgin to both Vegas and CES, I was pleasantly surprised by just how hip CES is. From a PR perspective, this makes a lot of sense. Companies not only have to have quality products and ground-breaking innovations, but they need to attract media and buyers to their booths using whatever approaches it takes. I saw everything from Justin Bieber to booth babes and even people jumping on trampolines. Case-Mate didn’t need any of this because its booth’s high design, quality products and team spoke for itself.

Some favorites from the show included a new Tortoiseshell case for the hip socialite, a Phantom case for the Soul Cycle enthusiast and a POP! ID case for the minimalist bar-goer. The booth represented Case-Mate’s philosophy of “happiness by design” and showcased all of the products in a fun and vibrant way, even allowing guests to make their own cases on-site or trade in their old cases for a new one. And the team was authentic and genuine – each Case-Mate team member dressed their smartphones up with a case that matched their individual style.

Whether it’s a brand, product or idea – CES is the place to make it come to life in a way that is authentic (and sometimes even unusual). What I learned:  if tech can be sexy, anything can be!

Foursquare: Is it a game you played on the playground; or is it a game you play in the palm of your hand, with your city as the playground? Neither, actually. Though just as playful, foursquare is more useful than either gaming solution.

As a location-based mobile utility, foursquare helps you navigate your city and discover new places within it. You can either ‘check-in’ or simply ‘Explore’ nearby hotspots, niche venues and even deals, with the click of a button.

To demonstrate the relevance of foursquare’s newest features to everyday consumers, Kaplow kicked off a series of walking tours, in which we invite a few reporters on a four-block tour, using foursquare as our compass.

Just a few days ago, we recently took a handful of travel journalists with us as we “played tourist” in the charming Lower East Side of Manhattan. Strolling along Stanton street, we stumbled upon everything from discounted drinks to the greatest sweet-tooth solution known to New York.

As our fellow “tourists” learned, and consequently shared with their readers, it’s incredible what you’ll discover in a city where you’ve lived your whole life!

Kaplow is excited to help change the foursquare conversation from “Maybe I’ll win the Mayorship there” to “Man, Aziza J. just went to Mamoun’s and said the falafel was fantastic! Let’s go there.”

Today, three Kaplow clients were featured in a TODAY Show segment entitled “Big Labels for Tiny Tots: Splurge vs. Steal Fashion Show.” TheFind’s Alison Deyette highlighted fashions from both Target’s Calypso Collection and Carter’s.

“After three years at Kaplow and dozens of Today Show segments for our clients, I’m really proud to have scored a hat-trick by having Target, Carter’s and TheFind all prominently featured in the same segment on the TODAY Show today,” said Dana Glaser, Vice President of Media Strategies and Executive Producer of Kstudio. “This is a true testament to the power of relationships coupled with Kaplow’s top-notch client roster.”

To watch the segment, please visit the Today Show here.