My first admission is that I know very little about football. Yes, my hubby was a Montreal Alouettes season ticket holder and yes, I did dress head to toe in orange at a Tennessee VOLS game to tailgate and moonshine. I also, most recently, coughed up cash to buy a signed Anthony Calvillo football for charity.

All that aside, what I do know is that having balls is considered to be a desirable attribute and synonymous with having guts, being bold and taking no prisoners. This past week sports, mainstream news reporters and late night talk show hosts had a field day with the language and innuendo about inflated and deflated balls and it got me thinking about what it means to have balls in business.

I found more questions than answers.

Does having balls mean being confident, professional, innovative and a risk taker? Or, is it being haughty, self-absorbed, arrogant or dismissive? Is the reference gender specific meaning that smart, accomplished, strong and assertive women can’t have balls? Can we turn the tables to suggest that the ambivalent, weak or needy of the male species can be lacking in the balls department?

As a business woman I am not alone in decrying the double standard which to this day describes strong women as aggressive, and strong men as assertive. Has this changed dramatically over the past twenty years or so? I would say not so much. Girls are socialized to do a sweet pirouette, even when they are the 7^th ranked female tennis player in the world. Can you imagine a man being asked to do the same thing? Not a chance! Not men who hit balls across a net for a living.

In business we all experience the joys of being inflated through our successes or once in a while feeling the funk of having our wings clipped. After 35 years in business I know that it’s never just about winning the pitch or the money that may come along with it. Having balls in business is all about standing up for what you believe in, having conviction, being the best you can be and being proud of what you do and with whom you are associated. And for those times when we get kicked you know where, our language may sound like “sour grapes” but it’s not. It’s the echo of having developed perfectly inflated and professional balls.

The world belongs to those who understand it. In the social media ecosphere, we at Strategic Objectives believe those who understand their audiences best have the highest likelihood of generating the best results. PRs need to understand how to tell a brand’s story and make it speak to audiences so effectively that the message can transcend all platforms and inspire sharing. PRs are natural communicators, but even here, you really need to understand your audience to maximize results.

Everyone is trying to figure out user behaviors online. Once we understand behaviors, we can better understand how to reach our target markets and build the best and highly-engaged online communities for our clients. What if we were to say most gamers have never been to college? What if we were to tell you there’s a strong use of social networking in the workplace?

Social Media Today recently released some statistics on social media usage and its demographic landscape. The statistics are deduced from 900 websites that average 9 million visits/month per site and offer some very valuable, not-so-surprising and nonetheless interesting results on user data. That data can be found in the chart below, where we have also created a quick summary of the research findings.

Demographic Findings:

• Social networking is dominated by younger generations with no children, and online networking activity picks up in college
• Social networks are most popular among the youngest generation (18-34) and are used less frequently for each successive age group over 35
• Youth ages 18-24 tend to use social networks to supplement social life, learning, and having fun.
• The most diverse use of social networks comes from the 25-34 year old age group.
  • Continue to use the services they used in college, but less often
  • As they start to have new interests (business, family), they are most likely to use online social engagement to benefit their business/career, discuss or plan travels, and share family-related experiences online
• The 35+ demographic show technological bias against social networking.
  • High likeliness of these age groups to use business, family, and dating networks
  • Stats also suggest that social networking’s popularity among youth may be not just be due to technological differences, but to a better fit of interests
• People with college-level education tend to have a higher rate of social for participation with networks across the board.
  • This suggest the expanding network once in college
  • Also demonstrates there is a tremendous amount of information shared between students

Outlier Findings: Two categories break this trend

• Gaming has an unusually high participation rate among people without college experience
  • Likely that a high percentage of gamers are young
• Places has a very high participation rate among people with graduate-level schooling
  • Likely positive correlation between graduate school and income, and between income and travel.

Male VS Female Findings:

• Gaming is strongly dominated by males
• Lifestyle and family is strongly dominated by females
• Dating, Places, and Business are used more often by females
• Education networks are used most by males

Location Findings:

• Strong use of social networks in the workplace
  • Distraction or sign of increasing application of social websites for practical purposes?

On Tuesday, June 23, 2009, the Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms will host a panel of industry leaders to share their insights and perspectives on how cutbacks to mainstream media and new social media practices are redefining the PR landscape.

Panelists include:

Dr. Terry Flynn, PhD, assistant professor, DeGroote School of Business and national president of the Canadian Public Relations Society.

Mathew Ingram, online communities editor, Globe and Mail.

Keith McArthur, senior director, digital communications, Rogers.

The panel will be moderated by Trevor Campbell, president, Porter Novelli Canada.

You can follow the event on Twitter, hashtag #CCPRF, or watch this website for a recap of the discussion.

We received an email from a new public relations practitioner asking how he should charge for his services. I’d like to share his email and my response.

The question:

I’m an up and coming media/PR consultant.  I was in the media industry for 13 years and now I’m looking to develop my own consulting business.  …

Recently, I acquired my first client.  I’ll be paid on a per project basis. The client wants me to work on a social networking website campaign I suggested.  Basically, I’ll be putting together this small business’ Facebook and Twitter pages.  I’m trying to figure out how much I can charge this business.  Should I go with a per hour rate?  If so, how much?  Or a flat rate? If so, how much?  I’m also trying to determine how long it will take to build traffic and interest to these social networking pages.  I’m guessing it’ll take 4 to 5 months for any substantial growth.  This company is looking at this campaign as a new way to attract interest to its website/store.

I’d appreciate any thoughts as to how much I can charge.

My answer:

What you charge depends on the overhead you must carry (your needs), the value to the client (what you should charge), the budget of the client (what you may only be able to charge.) Bottom line, I’d start by asking for a fee equal to what I think the project will be worth the the client based on anticipated results. Then, if they cannot afford this, you can decide whether to negotiate an acceptable fee.

Your thoughts:

How would you answer this question? What’s the right way to charge for public relations services?