How marketers can avoid the four biggest Facebook mistakes. Research on 300 top brand pages on Facebook shows customer engagement is generally down. Among the fixes: Speak purposefully with fans six to seven times per week, but only if you have something interesting to say. Develop original content like videos - Facebook isn't a "promotional wastebasket." Build the right internal structure. Measure and share the value of your fans in ways your CFO understands.

Inside the mind of a motivated employee. As the job marketplace improves, organizations are struggling to keep their most talented employees. Research shows (at least) three fundamental things you can do today to help employees feel more engaged and motivated: 1) Provide a compelling purpose for your organization's work - not just what you do but why you do it - so that employees know they're part of something important; 2) ensure employees have challenging goals and plans to strive toward; and 3) outline clear roles and responsibilities so they know what's expected of them and can take control of their work.

Lesson #1 from the Wall Street protests: Listen. Whatever you may think about the Occupy Wall Street protests, it's sparking conversations from board rooms to living rooms. Says one leadership consultant: "What we need right now is to have the questions heard, the anger acknowledged, and the suffering recognized. What we need is listening. Open-hearted, compassionate, courageous listening ... It's also the greatest lesson of the protests: it's worth talking about something even when the solution isn't obvious." For organizational leaders, this means taking time to listen to key audiences and engaging in meaningful conversations, especially before making critical decisions.

Shining the Spotlight on the Boulder International Film Festival

In 2011, Boulder International Film Festival organizers wanted to continue building

photo credit: Randy Malone

the event's "must attend" reputation among both local audiences and film festival enthusiasts worldwide. For the fifth consecutive year, Linhart PR provided pro-bono PR support to help increase festival attendance, awareness and ticket sales. Linhart PR developed and implemented a strategic media relations and social media plan that included showcasing the event as one of the country's up and coming international film festivals and leveraging partnerships with visiting filmmakers, directors and celebrities. Festival organizers landed two celebrity coups for star-power media relations opportunities to promote: film-making legend Oliver Stone was honored with a "Master of Cinema Award" and 2011 Oscar contender James Franco appeared for an on-stage interview eight days before hosting the Academy Awards. Results: The PR team generated the most media coverage in festival history, reaching more than 21 million consumers through target outlets, including a feature story in national film trade publication IndieWIRE. This success helped drive a 9.2 percent increase in ticket sales over 2010. Linhart PR is once again proudly serving as the festival's pro-bono PR partner in 2012. 

Last quarter, we asked what area you want to improve in your 2012 PR plan: 75% said integration with other departments and 25% said creative campaign and program ideas.  

In this issue, we want to know: what is the top driver of employee satisfaction in your organization?   

POST SCRIPT   

• Linhart PR won the Top Places to Work in PR 2011 award from industry publication PR News. We were among 10 PR firms nationwide to be recognized based on workplace culture and excellent people practices.

• We were named a national finalist for 2012 Boutique Agency of the Year by industry publication PRWeek. Winners will be announced March 1, 2012, at an awards dinner in New York City.  

• Celestial Seasonings® -- a leading brand of natural and specialty teas in North America -- has selected Linhart PR as its agency of record.
• Danielle Feldman joined Linhart PR as an account supervisor and will be working on consumer packaged goods and related accounts, including Celestial Seasonings.