The following are a few ways to put a little PR spice into your business’ holiday strategy:

1. Send holiday cards by snail mail or email, if you want to go green, and/or gifts to your main constituencies.
2. Throw a holiday party for your employees to show them you appreciate their hard work. Check out our free event plan template at http://fmpr.net/downloads/event_plan_template.pdf.
3. Coordinate or sign up for a community service event, and recruit employees to participate. Give your employees company t-shirts or hats to wear so you’re a cohesive group.
4. Donate a portion of your annual profits to charity. For more information about this tactic, contact us to prepare a Community Support Plan for your company.
5. Decorate your business for the holidays.
6. Send a year-end e-letter to your shareholders and other allies to let them know what your business accomplished in the past year, and what they can look forward to next year.
7. Host a holiday-themed game on you social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc.), and give away prizes to reward your most interactive friends, fans, and followers.
8. Pitch a story to your local newspaper using a holiday angle. For information on how to write a press release, see our tips at http://www.yourpubliciswaiting.com/2010/12/how-to-write-a-press-release/. 

To maximize these tactics, be sensitive to the fact that people celebrate different holidays during this time. Steer clear of sending cards or gifts specifying any one holiday. Instead, wish your recipients a “happy holiday season.” Also, invite the media to cover any community event that your business supports. And remember, the holidays continue through the New Year so it’s entirely appropriate to have the festivities run through that time period. Finally, and as always, be sure that all your PR strategies, actions and communications come from the heart.  

For more PR tips, visit our website at http://www.fmpr.net/, subscribe to our blog at http://www.yourpubliciswaiting.com/, and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fmpr.

Recently, we found a great article, “5 Things You Should Do on Social Media Every Day” by Mikie Kennedy, founder of eReleases. The 5 tips are:

1. A Little Chit-Chat 
2. A Little RTing
3. A Little Following
4. A Little Advertising
5. A Little Damage Control

Read the entire article for the details to these 5 daily to-dos. For more on Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media, visit our social media blogs.

Social networking has been a part of the customer service and shopping experience at Kukui Grove Center for over a year.  Our presence on Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, and other social media sites has allowed us to expand our online reach, beyond traditional website capabilities, to build relationships and communicate with our customers about services, sales, merchants, and community events.

We utilize social media to increase Kukui Grove’s advertising exposure at every opportunity.  After a year of creating a database of online followers and fans, we decided to test Kukui Grove’s social media reach initially by promoting a new Toddler Thursday event via our Twitter and Facebook pages. The results were amazing!  Attendance increased each week.  Recently, we garnered our largest turnout of more than 81 toddlers thus, providing valuable entertainment for our weekday consumers and increasing pedestrian traffic for our merchants.

Social networking is changing the way we do business everyday.  Kukui Grove has received great benefit from social networking, and we are certain that your business can too.

Here are a few of my tips on using social media:

• Clarify your objectives, develop a strategy, and execute appropriate tactics.
• To increase traffic to your social media site, always include who, what, where, when, and why.
• Partner with neighboring businesses to promote special offers.
• Create an online “code” that only your followers will know to track store sales, purchases, etc.
• Promote your social networking presence through email blasts or one of your current advertising vehicles.
• Negative feedback is okay. Plan a strategic response to negative and positive feedback before responding.
• Lastly, the most important thing is to listen and engage — it’s social! Don’t be afraid to speak, ask, and “mingle!”

Visit Kukui Grove Center at www.kukuigrovecenter.com, www.Twitter.com/KukuiGrove, www.Facebook.com/KukuiGroveCenter, and http://kukuigrovecenter.posterous.com.

5 Things You Need to Know About Location-Based Social Media
by Kevin Nakao

Kevin Nakao is VP of Mobile & Business Search for WhitePages, a Top 40 Web and Mobile Publisher. You can find him on Twitter, and on the Whitepages Blog where he writes about mobile, local, and social media.

While last year’s SXSW seemed to serve as the “coming out” party for location-based services (LBS), maybe this year’s conference signifies the migration of these platforms into mainstream culture. And perhaps the only real “new” concept to emerge this year is the idea that there is finally a real opportunity to make money via “location.”

Here are five things that companies should consider as they look to utilize location-based services (LBS) as part their mobile strategy. Click here to read the entire article.

1. Email Signature – Create an email signature that is included in all of your email messages. Your email signature should include your name, title, and all of your contact information. And when we say all, we mean all the ways to contact your business, including any social media (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, etc.) avenues your business uses to communicate with customers. Make sure all that your email addresses and all web addresses in your signature are hyperlinked, so that anyone can click on the link and be automatically directed to that site.
2. Contact Info on Every Website Page – Sure, every business website has a Contact Us page. But,  from any other page on your site, that adds one more click your customer has to take to find this information. We recommend placing your contact information (again, email and web addresses in hyperlink) on every page of your website. It doesn’t have to be big and take up a lot of space. Small font on the bottom of the page is fine. You just want to be sure that once an individual is convinced to do business with you, they don’t have to look much further to contact you. Bonus: As an added benefit, multiple listings of keywords such as your city name or state name on your website can help with your search engine optimization (SEO).
3. Map it! -  In the Contact Us section of your website, have a link to any online map service so that customers can click on it to see where you are located, add in their own location to map out driving directions, and then print it up to use on the road.
4. Business Hours – Business hours are often overlooked as critical information for consumers to know. Business hours should also be on every page of your website, prominently listed on your social media sites and profiles, and on any other place that your contact information appears. Bonus: Posting your hours on your daily timeline on social media sites from time to time is an excellent reminder for current customers and info for potential customers.
5. All Printed Materials – Sure, we all know to include contact information on brochures and similarly marketing materials, but what about printed materials that don’t normally leave your location, such as menus for restaurants or in-store signage (in dressing rooms, at the cash register, etc.) for retail companies.  Business hours and website addresses are great for these pieces.
6. Voicemail – Voicemail is another great place to leave your contact information, especially your business hours, email address, and website address. Listing other ways for people to contact you will help reduce the messages and inquiries left on your voicemail for you to return.
7. More on Hyperlinking – We’ve talked several times about hyperlinking above, and we can’t stress enough how powerful a tool this is. Whenever possible hyperlink. In email messages, electronic documents, estimates, websites, blogs, social media, and more. Hyperlinking also enhances SEO.

Implement these tips and whoever is looking for you will surely find you. This is the first step to making your next sale.

It has been said that in recent years, we are experiencing a worldwide epidemic of loneliness.  People are hungry for connection and community, so it’s no surprise that social media like Twitter and Facebook have become wildly popular.

Creating opportunities for your customers, clients, vendors, and employees to connect is a great PR tactic in strengthening their relationships with each other and most simply, keeping everyone happy.

How can you create social connections in your business? Encourage employees to eat lunch together or exercise in groups during breaks.  Plan social events and invite your target publics. If you have a company meeting or training, be sure it has a social component to it, a time when attendees can informally interact. Have a place in your office where employees can gather, like a kitchen or break room and make sure it has the amenities to hold at least several people (e.g., a table and some chairs).  If your business utilizes Twitter, plan tweetups to get to know your followers.  On a smaller scale, take the time to chat with people with whom you come into contact.  Smile, be friendly, compliment them, show some interest in their lives, and just get to know them.  In other words, connect.

1)    Clean up and clear out.  Clutter is useless and takes up space that could be better used.  Having stacks of old things around is also unattractive.  Give your customers, your employees, and yourself more room to move around and a nice, organized space in which to work.  Be merciless about the clearing.  Donate items that you can no longer use to a nonprofit that might be able to use them.  Recycle what you can.  If there are things you absolutely cannot part with, organize them, label them, and put them in storage.  A cleaner, clearer workspace will make everyone feel better – your customers, your employees, and you, and it will symbolically provide the needed open space for useful, and perhaps moneymaking things and ideas.

2)    Innovate.  If there’s a problem, or even minor irritation, that’s affected your business for eons, now’s the time to focus on a solution.  Innovation and creativity are in the air.  And, in this case, it’s even better if you have an extremely limited budget.  It will force you to be more creative to find a new, better way to do something.

3)    Twitter.  We have found Twitter to be one of the best ways to get our messages out to our target publics immediately, for free, and with very little effort.  For tips on how to get on Twitter and use it well, see our Tweet 16 and other Twitter posts on our blog.

So what’s the PR connection? Anything you do that helps you develop or improve your relationship with your publics is indeed public relations.  Your job is to do the right things and then tell the world about it.  In the case of cleaning up and clearing out, use that as an excuse to have a little open house or a grand re-opening to show off your new and improved environs.  When you come up with an innovative solution to your problem, share it with everyone you can.  It will gain you respect and set you up as a leader (and pioneer) in your industry.  As far as Twitter goes, the benefits speak for themselves.  It’s a way to directly communicate with people who have voluntarily signed up to hear what you’re doing.  So go for it!  In today’s economy, opportunities arise out of what you create.

First of all, Twitter gives you a one-degree separation between you and the people and businesses on Twitter. Move out of the way, Kevin Bacon, Twitter’s got you beat!  It’s so easy to Tweet your favorite celebrity, reporter, business, and so on. Of course you’ll need to do a little investigating (quick Google search) to make sure the user you’re tweeting is the “real” person or business you’re looking for (versus imposters). And, many times, they will reply back to you. We’ve tweeted to and received replies from Al Roker, KGMB9 News, Starbucks, Zippy’s, and Andy Bumatai, to name a few. So cool! We know it’s cheesy to be star struck, but we don’t care…we LOVE it!  As a frequent Starbucks drinker, I was thrilled and very impressed with the prompt response I got when I tweeted @Starbucks a question one day. In terms of brand loyalty, can you imagine how my original warm-and-fuzzy feelings for my favorite coffee stop got even warmer and fuzzier (and led to more visits and purchases)?

We’ve been exposed to the “cool-ness” of Twitter but recently, we were again amazed by the power of Twitter. I was tweeting with FMPR’s Twitter friend @johngarcia, a web designer and photographer in Honolulu. We were talking about the Keurig single cup coffee maker, which uses the “K-cup, an individual cup of your favorite hot beverage concentrate (coffee grinds, tea leaves, chai mix, cocoa, etc.) to brew your drink. We were trading our K-cup favorites when I tweeted him, “Once we got the hot chocolate K-cup from Macy’s n it tasted like plastic…beware of that one.” He replied,” Darn, I think we have that one, too… oh wells… those’ll be filler in the carousel. ” That was my last Twitter conversation of the night, and I headed off to bed without a second thought (well, I did think about getting a cup of coffee from my sister’s Keurig, but decided to pass on that since it was practically midnight and even though we’re neighbors, I didn’t think she would appreciate me dropping by at that hour).

The next morning when I checked our Twitter account, Green Mountain Coffee @GreenMtnCoffee, who apparently is the maker of that particular hot chocolate K-cup had tweeted us, “@fmpr We understand you were not satisfied with Hot Cocoa. It is important that the k-cups are kept at room temp. & shaken prior to use.” Ahhh! At first I was stunned and a little embarrassed that the actual hot chocolate company had “caught” me criticizing their product. But then I thought to myself that I wasn’t totally bashing them and I was telling my truth. I immediately tweeted @johngarcia who got a good chuckle from it and suggested I blog about it (thanks again, John), and it got me thinking more about this experience. This was customer service at its finest. I didn’t even have to contact the company, they came to me. And, to tell you the truth, if they hadn’t tweeted me, I would have gone along with my life adding this company to my “never-buy-or-try-again list.” But because of this interaction, I am willing to give them another chance, maybe not with that particular flavor, but with another one. Importantly, I have positive feelings about the way that they reached out to me. It showed me that they care about their customers and their reputation, and they are not afraid to address the undesirable feedback about their products. This counts for a lot. I will never forget this experience and that company’s name.

So, if you have a business, consider using Twitter and think about how you can reach out to your customers like never before. If you’ve dismissed the idea of Tweeting before because of the time it’ll take to learn or to administer during the day, think (or tweet) again…it has the potential to revolutionize your image.

Ever since we opened an account on Twitter, people have been coming up to us to ask us how Twitter works.  Twitter definitely takes some time to get used to, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fun and opens you up to a world of people and opportunities.  To help you get started, here are our Tweet 16, the top facts and tips to help you get into the Twitterverse action. 

1. Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a micro-blogging site, which means that a Twitter post is limited to only 140 characters.  That means each letter, space, symbol, etc. is counted as one character. In contrast, a blog post can be any length you wish.
2. A post on Twitter is called a “tweet.”
3. The original purpose of a tweet was to answer one question: “What are you doing?” However, tweets have now evolved to include anything from the link to their latest blog to asking questions (one woman asked the Twitter community if they could tweet her the city bus schedule on her route, and she got the schedule within minutes!), sharing business tips, and so on.
4. Twitter is absolutely free! There is no fee to set up an account.
5. Once you have a Twitter account, you will have a home page in the Twitter site that will feature your name, location, bio, people you follow, and people that follow you. You can post a message from your home page and check to see if anyone has mentioned you or sent you a direct message (more on this later).
6. To keep tabs on topics, people, and organizations that are interesting to you, you can follow any Twitter user by clicking on the “follow” button found near their username. Following a user means that their tweets will filter in real time through to your home page so you can see the latest about what they’re doing, thinking, eating, etc.
7. In turn, any Twitter user can follow you.
8. All Twitter usernames are always prefaced by the “@” symbol when featured in any tweet, regardless if you are addressing that user or just mentioning something about them. For example, if you were referring to a stay at The Grand Hyatt Kauai, you would say “Had a wonderful weekend vacationing @GHKPoipu!” And, you can get to any user’s home page by going to www.twitter.com/USERNAME (e.g. www.twitter.com/GHKPoipu).
9. You can reply to any Tweet at any time. When viewing a tweet, have your cursor hover over the right side of the post and a swooping arrow will appear. Click on that arrow, and you can reply to that user about their tweet.  Remember that anytime you reply to someone, your reply is public. It will appear on your public timeline, or profile, as it is referred to from your home page, for all to read. Replies must stay within the 140 character limit.
10. To privately send a user a message, you can send a direct message. However, you can only direct message someone if they follow you.  If not, the only way to communicate with them is via a public reply.
11. To make it easy for you, any time your username is mentioned on Twitter, it will be cataloged in your @yourusername menu item on the right side of your home page.
12. A retweet, or RT, is when one user repeats what another has posted because they like, agree with, or want to emphasize the content of the tweet. When retweeting, begin the post with RT and the @username followed by their tweet.
13. Twitter is a community based on reciprocity.  Top twitterers follow those that follow them, join in on the conversation, don’t tweet only about themselves or what serves them, and add value to others.  Sure, you can observe and take a back seat as you’re becoming familiar with tweeting, but once you are, participate!
14. As with any social networking medium or electronic messaging system, Twitter has its share of spam, or junk tweets.  You’ll learn to recognize and filter these out of your home page.  In these cases, especially for spam harassers (spammers that won’t leave you alone), you will want to block these users. 
15. Along the same lines, treat Twitter as you would any electronic public forum and be careful with your personal, private information.  One individual’s house was burglarized after tweeting that they would be on vacation.
16. Now that you have the basics on Twitter, if you’re still not quite sure you understand it, don’t feel badly.  We experienced the same feeling. We had been reading about and observing Twitter for some time before we actually signed up. It wasn’t until we jumped in and tried it that we got the full gist of it. And, we are still learning new things as we go along.  So, if you have an interest in tweeting, try it out.  It’s the perfect way to understand and become a proficient twitterer.

 We hope these Tweet 16 tips are a helpful introduction to Twitter. Let us know if you have more questions. For now, we’re off to check out the latest news from The Garden Island (@thegardenisland), the weather from Guy Hagi (@GuyHagi), what Augie T (@augz1) is up to, where Ron Margolis (@RealtorRon) will be playing jazz next, what Giada De Laurentiis (@GDeLaurentiis) is cooking up in her kitchen, any new listings from Kymry Perez (@KymryPerez), what’s new at the Kauai Humane Society (@KauaiHumane), the latest from Ukulele Underground (@UUrayan), what Demi Moore is doing tonight (@mrskutcher), how to boost our website functions from kauaichelle (@kauaichelle), and getting a coffee question answered by Starbucks Coffee (@Starbucks).  …Oh, and when you get on Twitter, feel free to follow us at @FMPR. Tweet us, and let us know you read our blog. We’ll follow you back! Tweet out!