This past holiday season I conducted a pseudo study of all the holiday or Christmas cards I received. Much to my sjogren, I discovered that almost 75% of the cards received hadn’t one bit of personalization on them except for the handwritten address. And probably half of those that weren’t personalized at all didn’t even have a handwritten address…but a printed lable. 

Please don’t get me wrong, we had a nice family photo card made via Shutterfly this year, last and probably the year prior.  But my wife and I usually sit down and sign each card typically writing a little personalized note on each. Besides, for many, this may be our only interaction with them all year!

Unfortunately, I believe we’re in a new era of “Template Personalization.” The dichotomy of the phrase is on purpose as ”template” and “personalization” are as opposite as “night” and “day.” Yet we see examples of this being used across all mediums of communication today. Here are 3 additional examples of “Template Personalization”:

• Blast Emails – We see this one all too much within the business world and in particular within public relations as many PR firms and professionals see a need to blast a pitch and worse yet, a release to hundreds of journalists…hoping for something to stick.
• Evite – I’ve used Evite’s many times and will continue to do so as they’re a great way of managing a party or event. But when you have a small group of friends, family or even coworkers your inviting for an event…why not use print invitations and write a personal invite on each?
• Automatic Direct Messages on Twitter - When you start following someone on Twitter (kind of like your “friends” on Facebook for those of you not using Twitter) there are many services out there that allow for you to send a template response or direct message to those that started following you. I’ve recently started calling attention to these via my Twitter account (here is a link to these tweets).

What are some good (or bad in this situation) examples of “Template Personalization” that you’ve seen? I look forward to adding to this list as I definitely plan on tweeting & posting on this subject often…consider it a pet peeve of mine:)

I was recently reminded of the challenging and difficult decisions that we must make in the business world…especially those that cause many sleepless nights and constant second guessing. As a business owner I’m often faced with such decisions yet I rarely find myself losing sleep or second guessing myself. I’ve been raised to follow your heart and do what I know is right…even if it hurts.

Without naming names or getting into too much detail, several months ago I was faced with such a rare situation – in the first year of my business. Even though the end result was one of the most important decisions I’ve made in my young career as the owner of my company, it didn’t make the situation any easier to deal with at the time.

Several months back we had just started working with a new client who had an amazing new technology. After several months of sharing ideas and swapping business philosophies, we were eager to get started on this new client. Surprisingly, our first task was to support a decision they had made to litigate against a competitor infringing on their technology patent instead of leading with the various positive story angles around their innovative technology. We agreed to support such an announcement but advised that we shouldn’t be proactive with our outreach as with any litigation, they couldn’t get into details about the lawsuit at the end of the day. A story came out in a popular technology blog that the client viewed as unfavorable and ironically, this blog also happened to have a partnership with the competitor they had just named in a lawsuit. Here is the kicker…the very next day this blog was added to the lawsuit despite the hundreds of other partners this competitor had…the blog was the only partner added. That’s when my ethical radar kicked in.

To make a long story shorter, I made the decision to let that client go. Not because I didn’t agree that fighting for your patented technology was the right thing to do, but because they were leveraging litigation to get back at an unfavorable blog post. Not to mention my name & my firm’s name was on the release.

The reason I’m sharing this story with each of you is not to discuss if it was right or wrong to make this decision (I am at peace of mind today about my decision), but to remind each one of you to follow your heart and above all else…make the right decision, no matter how wrong it might feel at the time.

Have you ever looked back on a decision you made in business (or life) and no matter how hard it was to stomach at the time, felt refreshed that you truly did the right thing?

I’ll leave you with the words of the wise and crafty Mark Twain…”Always do right – - this will gratify some and astonish the rest.”

For anyone that knows or follows me on Twitter they know how passionate I am about “doing the right thing.”  Most recently you’ve probably seen how frustrated I’ve been about this week’s national media blitz from Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

As a business owner and PR professional, I make it a priority to focus on ethics above all else.  In fact, let me share my checklist for any new business opportunity (more for myself vs. a tried & true process):

1. Does the prospect have an amazing story to tell…if not several amazing stories to tell? If yes….
2. Would I feel comfortable representing such a client and introducing them to the media contacts that I cherish? If yes…
3. Do they have a clearly defined need tied into a business goal or goals for our services (i.e., not just wanting to see their face in the WSJ)? If yes…
4. Do they understand the value and process of media relations? If yes…
5. Is there a reciprocating connection between the prospect and our firm (sometimes a gut instinct)? If yes…
6. Do they have $ and time to invest in this process (daddy does have to feed the boys, right?)?

I feel the need to share this with you because I learned that Gov. Blagojevich had hired a firm in Tampa, FL called The Publicity Agency to represent him on this recent media tour.  Glenn Selig, owner of this firm touts right on his homepage that his firm also represnted Drew Peterson, a former Illinois police sergeant who was accused of killing his third & fourth wives.  Was there any ethical decision made when Mr. Selig decided to take on both Blagojevich & Peterson as clients?  Did Mr. Selig apply a similar set of personal requirements when assessing either of these opportunities? 

I would love to hear from others on this topic and specifically on this particular example.  Is it our “duty” as PR professionals to represent these characters (accused criminals)?  Once again, ethics should drive every decision we make…my answer is plain and simply, “no.”