Fourth Annual Challenge the Champions

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Tuesday September 21, 2010 | No Comments

This Friday, the Pascale PR team attended the Fourth Annual Challenge the Champions, a benefit for Every Child, Inc. The local social service agency helps children and families in the region, and has provided help to over 5,000 families since its founding in 1997.

With outstanding support from the event’s co-chairs, Steeler’s head coach, Mike Tomlin and his wife, Kiya, as well as Steven Massaro and Stephanie Bernaciak-Massaro, the evening was a great success! Guests were invited to enjoy cocktails in the Steelers locker room, and walk across Heinz Field, followed by delicious food and entertainment.

The event concluded with an auction of amazing sports, travel, and entertainment items, as well as a presentation by families who have utilized Every Child’s services –  a reminder to all those in attendance that their generosity was both important and appreciated.

With such a worthy mission, PC was eager to collaborate with Every Child and their team of supporters to maximize press for Challenge the Champions. Breaking out their formalwear, Georgette and Chris attended the event, and were excited to walk on the field and see the PC logo on the Jumbotron! A fabulous evening out on the town, for a great cause – Plus, who else gets to shake hands with Steelers on game weekend?

Learn more about Every Child, Inc:
Every Child, Inc. believes that all children, no matter their age, race, disability or special health care need, deserve the opportunity to grow up with a loving and lasting family. We serve birth, foster, and adoptive families and children with special needs from Allegheny County and surrounding counties in southwestern Pennsylvania. We do this in a customized way that tends to his or her specific needs. Every Child staff is fully dedicated to helping
guide the family through each chapter of their particular story.

Read more at www.everychildinc.org.

by PascaleCom

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Introducing PC’s latest “Virtual PR Intern” – Lynn Sudik!

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Monday September 13, 2010 | No Comments

Each year, Pascale Communications, LLC invites students and recent graduates to join their public relations team to develop their careers in writing, PR, marketing and other areas. In 2010, PC welcomes Lynn Sudik, an experienced and ambitious Pitt senior.

With past interns assisting in everything from pitch development for large campaigns and marquee clients, to pushing proclamations for World Glaucoma Day through political outlets to the Senate and White House, PC’s “virtual” interns are hardly invisible, and support our team in a significant way while planning their own future in the industry.

In her initial days with PC, Lynn has already collaborated with our team on new business, and outreach projects in various areas. Thanks to Lynn in advance for her work and dedication over the coming semester – and welcome!

About Lynn:

I’m Lynn Sudik and I’m a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in Communications and minoring in French.  I’m an RA on campus and have been for the past 2 years.  I’ve studied abroad twice- once in London and once in France.  While studying in London, I had an internship with Voyager PR, who specializes in mid to upper market travel-related companies. When I’m not at Pitt, I live with my family about 35 minutes outside of Philadelphia. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with family and friends.

Learn more about PC’s Virtual Internships @ Regional Internship Center or contact Allison Potter

by PascaleCom

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The Role of Social Media in Healthcare PR

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Tuesday September 7, 2010 | No Comments

By: Rosemary Valenta

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Despite the confused chatter around social media in all business sectors, what digital communications boils down to is simply another way to express brands to consumer and business audiences.

After all, what does a solid communications program look like?

• Discussion of brand through third party experts, such as media and other trusted sources (celebrity spokespeople, key opinion leaders, experts in the field, nonprofit entities, etc.)

• Audiences that include professional media and consumers; purchasers and end-users

• Build sand sustain brand awareness

• Drives interest in brand, ultimately resulting in noticeable (if not measurable) differences in target behaviors, such as enhanced name recognition, positive response to brand and perhaps even increased sales

With that in mind, let’s look at social media.  How could we use digital communications to support the program pillars above?  To list just a few:

• Leverage KOL program to include KOLs discussing their use and experience with the product

• Offer surgical videos, live-Tweet procedures and before/after photos

• When working with KOLs, incorporate opportunities to blog for professional media sites as another way to manage visibility

• Offer KOLs to highly trafficked niche consumer blogs for regular Q&A feature series or other editorial benefiting the blog’s readership

• Launch a unique brand blog and link through to other topical sites to enhance authority and SEO

• Work with trusted channels to incorporate brand news into their content

• Provide links back to regulated and controlled content

As with all avenues of public discussion, there are a few things to keep in mind:

Respect the capabilities and limitations of each digital channel – just as public relations is not advertising, so are Facebook and Twitter completely different channels.  Don’t create a Facebook group or page and sit back, expecting it to magically do well on Twitter, which requires frequent, targeted content updates.  Twitter takes lots of care and feeding, but smart administrators can leverage single posts as Facebook updates as well, through platforms such as Ping.fm (for connecting to both personal Facebook pages as well as groups and/or pages) or the trusty TweetDeck (which cross-populates across popular social media forums but doesn’t-yet-support Facebook pages or groups).

Relinquish control (a little) – yes, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are heavily regulated, and no one is promoting irresponsible marketing.  But it’s important to note the difference between meeting regulatory guidelines and attempting to manage every online conversation to corporate messaging.  Just like reviews at Amazon, online conversations are largely comprised of open feedback and comment.  Companies willing to hear and respond to feedback from the marketplace generally win more trust than those that do not.  Look at the recent example of JetBlue, which responded to the headline-making story about one of its employees through a single, eloquent Twitter post.

Be a Boy Scout – However, while participating in open communication forums is a “do,” being unprepared is a definite “don’t.”  Wise companies – and PR firms – will have a crisis communications plan in place before turning on any large-scale digital communications effort.

Listen up – At the end of the day Twitter and Facebook are just two more tools in the PR arsenal.  Use them wisely, listen to your audiences (that strange new professional-consumer-interested bystander-media-hybrid) and be creative.  Paying attention to the direction and content of online discussions may also make the brand more authentic and responsive to critical audiences, so don’t turn your back once these efforts are launched.  Listen in.  Speak up. Repeat (often) for digital communication success.

Other Articles to Consider:
Social Media in Health Care: Barriers and Future Trends via iHealthBeat
Digitas SVP: Pharma Marketers Must Listen Before Joining Social Media Party via eMarketer
FDA Warns Pharmaceutical Firm Over Advertising on Social Media via iHealthBeat
5 Examples of Social Media in Healthcare Marketing via TopRank

by PascaleCom

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