Over the years, I’ve had many moments of revelation when I realize that my love for public relations stems from my passion for sharing compelling stories.

My first came when I was a little girl in fourth grade and I presented my book report for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on parents’ night.  I will never forget what it was like to take a story and make it come alive for someone else; actually for 25 or so different parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends.  I remember one conversation in particular: after giving my spiel to one of the parents, he asked me my favorite part of the book. I told him that it was when Francie Nolan, the protagonist, was allowed to pour out half a cup of coffee down the sink every day to feel that they weren’t so poor, that they couldn’t waste something. The man I was talking to liked that scene and told me that even though he was 38 years old and this was a 4th grade class, he was going to read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.  He told me I “sold” him through my enthusiasm for the scene.

I always wondered why this moment resonated with me.  I think the reason is, at that moment, I knew that I was destined for this business. Unlocking the joy in a story and sharing it with someone else is the basis of what we do at Kaplow. You hear it almost every day in PR and sometimes it’s the part of the story that no one saw at first glance.  It’s always about an emotional connection and I believe that it’s the heart and soul of this business.  It can take many forms today—from sharing a timeless brand’s story to unlocking the mystery and voice behind the world’s next great brand. One thing always remains the same: when you have an amazing story to share, it never feels like selling.

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the book launch of my renowned novelist friend, Agapi Stassinopoulos.  With the help of her sister, Arianna Huffington, and drawing on the influence of their Greek heritage and love of mythology, Unbinding the Heart is a beautiful collection of stories of Greek wisdom, generosity and unconditional love.  John and Margo Catsimatidis hosted the A-list event at Philip Johnson’s Four Seasons Restaurant in NYC in early February. The evening was filled with top industry editors, authors and celebrities who came to celebrate Agapi and her wonderful new book.

It’s only fitting that Agapi’s name means unconditional love in Greek as she has created a map of how to unbind your heart.  Through her book, Agapi hopes that by sharing her story, she can open the door for others to share their own.  In it she recounts 32 intimate, personal stories of her life, as well as the wisdom and fearlessness her mother raised her with.  For Agapi, one such instance came to her on a crosstown bus, going home after she did not get the part in a Greek play.  Instead of hanging her head, Agapi put on a show for her fellow passengers, performing the soliloquy of St. Joan and bringing her audience to tears.  That moment changed her life and she gave up her pursuit of fame to journey on for herself.  The book is a treasure not to be missed.

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.

L-r: Carlotta Jacobson, president of CEW and Liz Kaplow, CEO and founder of Kaplow Communications, at the Beyond Beauty Gala

Our very own Liz Kaplow was among the honorees at the recent 8^th Annual Beyond Beauty Gala, which benefits the James E. Marshall Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation. Hosted by Emmy Award-winning WCBS-TV reporter Dana Tyler, the event featured actress Dendrie Taylor from The Fighter as the evening’s guest speaker. The foundation was created in 2003 by Elysée Scientific Cosmetics President Linda Marshall and family, in memory of her son who battled the condition his entire life. James died in 2002, at the age of 39.

In her acceptance, Liz Kaplow referenced her own transformative experience at the Beyond Beauty event three years prior: “Linda told her story with blatant honesty, but also with heartfelt love and optimism. She talked of the real life her son James had bravely lived.  She honored his life by telling the truth. And it was in the power of storytelling that she helped us to understand OCD in a way that statistics never could. I founded Kaplow 20 years ago because I believe in the power of storytelling.”

The $225,000 raised at the event went to support Dr. Gerald Nestadt and his research team at the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, who are working on better solutions to manage, treat and perhaps, even prevent OCD.

Kaplow, who was introduced by CEW president Carlotta Jacobson, placed the night in context: “I am honored to have been chosen for this award and I hope you will join me in a commitment to share Linda’s story and her message: To be positive, to laugh, love, to take something devastating and use it as a foundation to move forward and bring good to the world.”

A few nights ago New York Women in Communications helped launch “Social Media Week” with an event titled “Bridging the Generation Gap: Reaching Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.” Kaplow’s own EIC, the incomparable Nick Charles, was one of the panelists. I say “incomparable” because few men I know would be so at ease speaking in front of over a hundred women, about their online behavior and how brands can successfully reach them. Moderated by Emmy-award-winning WABC-TV reporter Stacey Sager, the panel also included Susan Rinkunas, online editor for Women’s Health and Phyllis Weiss Haserot, president of the Practice Development Counsel.

Key takeaways:

Find out where your target audience lives and what they’re doing.

Not literally, or you’re looking at the business end of a restraining order. But when determining how to reach a particular audience, make sure you know where they go online, and what they’re doing there. For example, Millennials are often looking to socialize, while Baby Boomers look to reconnect. They’ve been there and done that. Now they want to find the people they went there and did that with.

One size does not fit all in social media.

Put down the posting for “Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/Everythingelse” and back slowly away from the keyboard. A cookie cutter approach to creating or revamping your brand’s comprehensive online presence is rarely successful. Figure out which destinations make sense for your target demographic, and then implement a strategy that caters to the audience that lives there.

Take advantage of the “Interest Graph.”

It’s not always about age. As evidenced by the skyrocketing phenomenon that is Pinterest, social media users are gravitating to communities that enable them to celebrate various interests, whether it’s home décor, travel, arts & crafts, or in my case, bacon. This means that portions of the population (regardless of age, location, socioeconomic status, and more) are segmenting themselves and broadcasting to the world what they are interested in hearing more about. Brand marketers should take note.

Give them something they can use, not what you think they should hear.

We live in an age where you can throw a virtual dime and hit nine jillion pieces of digital content. Specific age groups are searching for different types of information based on where they are in life, and what they’ve already experienced (or haven’t experienced). Help that person curate the content that is most meaningful to them, that they can use to better their life in some aspect. Be unselfish. They will reward you.

Lately I’ve been feeling a lot like Frasier, that curmudgeonly sitcom psychiatrist who would always start his radio show with: “I’m listening.” Instead of patients, though, I’ve been eavesdropping on people talking across the social Web — and trying to make sense of their conversations for our clients.

Social media analytics of “big data,” as it’s called, is the elephant in the boardroom of many big brands today because it’s such a daunting task.  It’s kind of like attending a million focus groups in five minutes and trying to boil down all of those opinions into a cohesive marketing or PR strategy.

Sure, there are plenty of tools out there to help you listen (Sysomos, Radian 6, Alterian, BuzzMetrics, etc.) and synthesize the data into nifty charts and graphs. But successful listening really requires a sound analytical plan — along with a savvy analyst crunching the data and monitoring the trends  — to make the insights sing.

The point of social media analytics, after all, is to understand what’s being said about your brands and leverage that information to meet your business objectives, be it more sales, enhanced customer communication, better brand reputation, or greater customer loyalty.

It’s all part of the social CRM wave. I listen to what consumers are saying on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and so forth so I can better understand their needs. Then I can improve my products, create cross-selling opportunities, and compete and communicate more effectively.

So what’s the best way to analyze the millions of social conversations around your brands to get at these golden data nuggets? Here’s a suggestion:

Listen Daily: Create a search agent that scours the social Web and gathers keywords being said about your brands. Respond quickly to negative comments and foster relationships with those who speak highly about your brand.

Measure Monthly: Establish social media KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), such as brand mentions and consumer engagement indices. Track trends to uncover changes in consumer attitudes towards your brand and how effectively you are reaching them in the social space.

Monitor Quarterly: Take a giant social media dipstick every three months that looks at your brand share of voice, key influencers talking about you, and overall brand sentiment compared to your competitors.

Later on you might consider doing some advanced analysis like correlating what’s being said in social media to your sales data or Web site traffic.

We’d like to hear about what you’re doing to analyze social media data. Our ears are wide open.

Hello. My name is Jen.  I want to begin this conversation by telling you all about myself; then, I’ll let you know what you can do for me.

Anyone who has any right-brain function would know this exchange would not lead to a meaningful relationship.

But public relations (PR) is all about relationships, and while PR 101 teaches us about the importance of building relationships with editors and bloggers, this knowledge is often thrown out the window when we outreach to celebrities or other influencers on behalf of our brands. Have you ever thanked a company for sending you a free product or coupon? Probably not.  So, why do we think this blanket gifting approach will work with influencers?

When you outreach to a celebrity or influencer, treat it as if you are in the beginning stages of a new relationship. If you have no friends or are always the victim of failed relationships, below are a few tips to get you started.

First Impressions Matter:  Ask a couple that met on Match.com about their experience, and they’ll likely tell you that they were initially attracted to their partner’s picture and were impressed by the first message they received from that person. Similarly, your brand’s initial communication with an influencer will determine whether she wants to engage with you.  If you are sending products, make sure they are packaged, presented, and delivered in a way that is personalized for each recipient and also tells your brand’s story.

If Her Mom Likes You, You’re In: If you brought your high school girlfriend’s mother a bouquet of flowers on prom night, your prom picture is likely still on her family room mantle, next to your former sweetheart’s wedding picture.

No, we don’t need to impress a celebrity’s mother. We need to impress someone even more important – her publicist.

An influencer’s publicist or agent is her most trusted confidant and gatekeeper, so make just as big of an effort developing a relationship with him. Any time you send a gift to a celebrity, include a small gift and note for the publicist. Find out his client list and congratulate him when one of his clients scores a great press hit.

The next time he sends out an image of his client, he might ask her to rock an outfit from one of your brands.

Sincerity Rules: No one likes to feel used. Make sure you are staying true to yourself and your brand and are genuine with all communication.

Good luck with your celebrity outreach! If you have any tips of your own, we’d love to hear them

If you work in Social Media or PR, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard the term Pinterest being thrown around in a brainstorm or two recently.  If you’re unfamiliar with the site, it’s a virtual inspiration board that allows consumers to quite simply “pin” a photo or story that they’d like to refer back to at a later date.  It’s a fancy bookmarking tool that allows you to share favorite stories and images with others.

Although it’s the new hot topic in conference rooms nationwide, it’s important to think about your brand’s strategy before diving into Pinterest.  If you make a product that appeals to young women that is also very visual and available online, it may be worth exploring!  As you surf through the pages of Pinterest, you’ll see that the most commonly pinned – or shared – items are vibrant in color, accompanied by a link to where the item can be purchased online and include tips on how to achieve a certain look.

I’ve been using Pinterest for a while – it helps me organize my favorite things like recipes, hair tutorials, inspirational quotes, cute puppies and nail art.  While many of the things I pin come from articles I’ve read in my RSS feed, I also follow a variety of brands that provide me with inspiration in a variety of ways.

If you’re thinking about exploring Pinterest for yourself, I recommend following the brands listed below. They are doing a great job so far of connecting with their target consumers through this platform.  Over the next few months, I anticipate that we’ll be looking at a ton of other brands that are taking the examples below to the next level.

• Lots of magazines are jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon, but InStyle, Lucky and Real Simplehave really embraced the site as a way to expand the content they’re sharing in-book, online and via Facebook and Twitter
• Refinery 29 is one of my favorite blogs and therefore, one of my favorite brands on Pinterest. They focus on style, beauty and DIY tips and tricks that get my right-brain’s juices flowing
• Mod Cloth, a popular fashion start-up, uses its Pinterest page to share a variety of products, creative ideas and vintage finds that its staff members find personally inspiring
• Who doesn’t love Martha Stewart?  Her Pinterest page is chock-full of recipes – enough to keep you inspired and creative in the kitchen
• Nordstrom uses its Pinterest page to curate different ensembles, trends and gift ideas for the holidays.  They also feature boards devoted to its Style blog and in-store Spa, giving them increased exposure to fans

Have you played with Pinterest yet?  If so, how do you use it to curate your favorite stories?  Share your favorite Pinners in the comments!

Whether you’re new to social media or a seasoned user, Sree Sreenivasan’s Social Media Weekend was meant to be a learning experience for everyone. The primary goal behind this event was to share best practices with journalists and media professionals when using social media, and stress the importance of connection. A common thread seen throughout the conference was personal branding. Some savvy social media minds shared their thoughts on social media and its impact on journalism and media; here are some of the key takeaways from that day:

Know who you are.

Never shy away from being you. Pick two to three subjects that define you and demonstrate your niche.Sree Sreenivasan said: “Think about the top 10-15 people following you whenever you tweet. Aim not to bore them.” Regularly update your social media profiles to include the most up-to-date information. It is important to constantly recreate your bio; it is the one place where you can brag about your accomplishments.

Think before you tweet.

Don’t bore or more importantly, misinform your followers. Consider what you’re tweeting to them. Sreenivasan added: “Everyone will miss almost everything you do on social media.” Keep it interesting, find new ways to engage with your community, but remember that your personal brand is an extension of your parent company. Steve Rubel shared a great example – Derek Jeter as an extension of the Yankees baseball brand. Through his own personal pages, Jeter gives the Yankees a humanistic quality and acts as the face behind the brand.

Timing is everything.

Unique content becomes spreadable content when the timing is perfect. We are living in a world of real-time news, where breaking stories are reported instantaneously. There are positives and negatives to this. Reporting breaking stories first can build trust within your community, but rushing and misreporting a story can result in major issues. The false report of Joe Paterno’s death was a great example mentioned during the Sports & Social Media Panel by Richard Deitsch: “As in Paterno’s death, one blogger source was used to break the story. Leading to one blogger embarrassing a major corporation.” Had this corporation verified its sources before releasing the story, this situation may have never happened. While it can be frustrating to wait, ESPN’s Joe Schad added: “I tweet what I know when I know it.”

Hot off the press! Kaplow is pleased to share its listing in the 2011 Holmes Report “Agency Report Card.”

Kaplow kick-started its 20^th year in 2011 with exciting new business additions and a revamped senior management team, quickly overcoming any industry hurdles thrown our way due to the ever-changing economy. As noted in the article, one key to Kaplow’s success is a 360 approach to client campaigns that supplements core media relations capabilities with newer offerings that include Kdrive social media practice, Kstudio content creation and distribution unit and groups focused on special events, corporate social responsibility and brand storytelling.

After the recognition of all our hard work this year, the article closes with a note that the agency has also secured a place on the Holmes list of the Best Agencies to Work For. Way to go!

A special shout-out goes to our dedicated clients, who continue to challenge us to be a best-in-class agency.

You can find the full Kaplow Holmes Report Card here. Here’s to even more exciting things to come in 2012.