Having focused my career in public relations, perception is a significant part of what I do professionally. How are my clients perceived by their audiences and how can I help shape that audiences’ perception of my client?

In a nutshell, you can have a solid company and make a great product with true benefits to the customer, but if your target audience doesn’t perceive your product the right way, you won’t sell it. That’s where PR can have quite an impact on perception, which directly impacts a company’s bottom line.

Last week I listened to Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital speak about the economy – a talk he called “this mess… and getting out” - at a gathering in New York. And what I took from his comments was that the economic recovery will also largely be about perception.

Marks, who is well-known for his musings via “memos” to clients, feels we should be confident that the cycle will invariably turn and the root of the recovery might by any of the items listed below. Note the majority of those items are perception-based:
• Appearance of bargains (perception)
• Emergence of optimism (perception)
• Some nugget of good news (perception)
• Inadequate return on cash (somewhat perception)
• Capital in the hands of possible buyers

Thus, economic recovery may be catalyzed by perception. And, in close, one of my favorite lines from the talk: “sooner or later the fear of losing comes to be balanced by the fear of missing out.”

As a sidenote, amidst all this talk about “perception” something a bit more tangible related to economic recovery has been released.  LIBOR dropped the most it has in 2 months, and while still historically high, in simple terms: banks/financial institutions are more confident and thus more likely to lend.  Check out the Bloomberg report:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aS_wbJukwWI4&refer=uk

My 10-year-old daughter, Hanna, is suddenly obsessed with pencil toppers.  She can’t get enough of them.  Everywhere we go, she is on the lookout for one.  She recently found a website that sells the toppers and, needless to say, was ecstatic!  She saved her allowance for two weeks to get the selection of toppers she had her eye on – in this case, they featured barnyard animals. 

I asked her the other day how this initial fascination came about. She explained to me that Alexa in her class had a collection that she brought to school one day. Soon all of the girls, and a few of the boys, were collecting them as well.  The chatter became so disruptive that the teacher had to temporarily ban all pencil topper sharing in the classroom.  The website Hanna found quickly sold out of their limited supply due to her classmate’s numerous orders.

Whether you are 10 or 100, word of mouth is powerful stuff. Who hasn’t run out to get the latest and greatest make-up a friend can’t live without, or the new snack chips a co-worker said they can’t get enough of?  Conversely, who has refused to buy a particular treadmill because their mother’s best friend’s cousin said it broke the first time they used it?  Your best spokesperson is a happy customer, and your worst… an unhappy one.

Pay attention to your purchases, especially those that relate to a new product.  Why are you interested in the product? Did you hear someone talking about it?  Did you see a story featuring the product?  Did one of your Facebook friends become a fan?   Either way, it led you to purchase the product.  Powerful, huh?

Last month I had the chance to visit the Emarketing Summit at the Oregon Convention Center. It was part of Innotech, a regional conference for the technology industry.

The highlight of the event was the lunch keynote speaker at the Emarketing Summit. Rahaf Harfoush, an Obama campaign volunteer and social media strategist, discussed valuable lessons from the social media campaign that changed politics. At just 25, she is one to watch in the flourishing social media space. Here are some useful insights she learned on the campaign about making social media work for you:

• Create Incentives within the community – encourage more social media community participation by rewarding the most prolific contributors. For example, the Obama team gave access to key campaign officials for top volunteers, not just the big donors.
•  Roll with the unexpected – if people unassociated with your brand share brand-related content they created themselves, embrace it. Utilize their enthusiasm to create awareness and build loyalty with their peers.
• Redefine Engagement – Be wary of arbitrary metrics (like web site hits) and focus on quality. Social media is all about relationships and providing value; having a core group of evangelists may be better than having 1,000 followers on Twitter.
• Personalize the mission – create bonds by making people feel invested in participating with your brand in social media.

James Beard Award Ceremony 2009

This week, I had the remarkable opportunity to attend the 2009 James Beard Award ceremony in New York City.  Akin to the Oscars of the culinary world, winning a Beard Award is the highest honor for food and beverage professionals in America.

This was the ultimate experience for a food lover like me.  Not only did I see Mario Batali, Martha Stewart, Tom Colicchio, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Dan Barber and Ellie Krieger but I was also able to meet (or catch a glimpse of) the journalists whose food stories I have been reading (or more appropriately, salivating over) all these years.  

Did I mention the food?  Wow.  There were more than 20 food stations serving the most unique small bites from a combination of the nation’s most established and up-and-coming chefs.  It’s hard to pick a favorite – they were all amazing.  However, if I am forced to pick, my favorite three were dishes from:  

 Culinary royalty Michelle Bernstein.  Her Sea Urchin Cuban Sandwich and Coral Cortadito was mind blowing. 
 Chicagoan Carrie Nahabedian’s Cured Ice-Caught Great Lakes Whitefish and Door County Golden Whitefish Caviar with Crème Fraîche, Candied Meyer Lemon, Bull’s Blood Greens, and Lebanese-Seeded Fattoush was fresh, light and addictive.
 San Francisco’s Loretta Keller’s Bolinas Goat’s Tongue with Meyer Lemon, Fenugreek, Mint, and Tomato Chutney was unexpected!  Who knew goat tongue could taste so good?!

If you’re ever afforded an occasion to attend this event, do not miss it.  And, don’t forget your running shoes!

Selling isn’t the province of one department. Here’s how to get the entire company stumping for the cause.

Gifted salespeople–those silver-tongued closers who can peddle saltwater to castaways–are the lifeblood of many a small company, though finding and keeping them can be a real challenge. Here’s a thought: What if, with a little training and persistence, all staffers–regardless of task or tenure–could contribute to the sales effort?

That’s precisely the philosophy at Roundarch, a Chicago-based designer of Web sites and nifty mobile applications. “Every one of Roundarch’s 175 employees, from the most senior to junior, is empowered to seek and close new business,” says President Jeff Maling. “In fact, we depend on it.”

Click here to read the article.