Today we hear from Sophia Cigliano, GY&K’s senior vice president of account services, on how an early lesson in “anticipation” helps make her daily job that much more fun and interesting – while benefiting clients! Check out the video here on YouTube.

Christmas shopping. Some people start their Christmas shopping on December 26 the year before. Others wait until Christmas Eve as the stores are closing. I fall somewhere in the middle – picking up some things during the year and then planning a big shopping spree for early- to mid-December.

I don’t know about you, but after Thanksgiving, I avoid the mall like the plague. Some people thrive on the action. There’s a woman in our office who picks a store and goes every day – I love her stories. But, it’s not me. I’ve become extremely dependent on online retailers to make my family and friends’ gift dreams come true, and that has altered the way I shop.

This year, in order to get packages delivered in time to wrap and gift, I need to place my order by December 17th, give or take. Retailers are a huge help – there are tons of free shipping offers. Just today, I received an update from Mashable about tomorrow’s “698 Online Retailers Unite for Free Shipping Day.”

Tonight I am going to scope out the sites and maybe tomorrow I’ll place a few orders to complete my gift lists. Last night I took advantage of Amazon’s free shipping and saved nearly $30 shipping on a $150 order. Not bad.

So, how has this changed the way retailers are marketing to consumers? With access to online shopping comparison sites (for both on-and off-line purchases) and because retailers are no longer dependant on geographic territories, I think the consumer makes out quite well with great prices and great selection. The noise of millions of messages is getting to me – looking forward to some quiet time in early January (before the Valentine’s Day promotions start!) In the meantime, retailers (and the creative folks working for them) need to remember that we are people with a need to fill – hit me with the right message at the right time (and throw in a good price and free shipping) and I will spend my money with you.

What recession?

In today’s installment of “Two Minutes with the Real GY&K” Rebecca tells us how a childhood lesson brought her down an unexpected path and into the world of marketing – and she’s here to stay! Click here to visit YouTube to hear Rebecca’s story.

Chatting with Nathaniel here at GY&K – here’s an interesting new way to window shop:

While reading today, we discovered Google is giving mobile users another way to use barcode scanner applications on their mobile devices. Now you can walk up to a business listed as a “favorite place” and scan a barcode in the window to get a direct link to the businesses mobile site, which may include reviews, coupons, and more information to help you make a decision on where to shop or eat. Google’s blog calls this “a whole new way to window shop.” They are launching this in 9,000 towns and cities.

Our question is, do people still window shop? Would this be something you would use to help you decide where to spend your money?

If you have ever called or visited GY&K, chances are you’ve met Deb. We asked her about her favorite movie and she reveals how it has helped make her the wonderful person she is today! Click here to watch her video.

As PR pros, we’d like to think we are special but the reality is that we are not unique. Virtually every industry has seen drastic changes in the last couple of decades. However, as the public voice of a company or organization, it’s important for us to stay ahead of the curve and proactively lead the pack to influence changes that are most important to our profession.

I began my career in PR in the mid-90s and remember thinking “we are going to save SO MUCH time and money when editors want press releases via email rather than fax or snail-mail!” And then it happened. Looking back, it’s amazing how much time do we save. From an agency standpoint, a major benefit of this time savings is that it allows us to spend our billable hours on strategic, value-added client work rather than administrative tasks.

However, one thing I never realized is that I would need a computer science degree to be an effective PR practitioner.

Granted, the talented people who do have CS degrees can run technical circles around me, so maybe a degree is an exaggeration. But understanding important influencing technologies has become a critical part of the PR pro’s role within a company, agency, or organization.

Of the dozens of technologies we could discuss, here are the top three I believe are most important today:

SEO (search engine optimization)

SEO is complicated. The folks who do this for a living know all the tips and tricks for organic and paid SEO. As a PR professional, simply knowing how to correctly optimize everything from a blog post to a press release is critical. It is important to have a solid understanding of what SEO is, how it works, and the pros and cons of the SEO tools available. When preparing your brief, you should ask “What key words will our target audience Google?” and use those words to help improve organic SEO.

Social Media

Social media sites can get quite technical. Blogs are customizable with widgets and analytics if you understand basic HTML. Facebook Connect is an excellent marketing tool if you aren’t afraid of APIs. Are you still trying to figure out Google Wave? Ever have an upload issue on YouTube that caused frustration? Even using a service like Ping can be technically complex.

RSS (really simple syndication)

I’m still amazed at the number of people who are not familiar with RSS. You’ll see the symbol on blog posts, news feeds, and other sites with regularly updated content. Do you conduct competitive and industry analysis? Want to track your own online media mentions and coverage? RSS is your friend. Instead of visiting dozens of websites, set up a custom RSS feed from a service like Google Alerts and have it appear in your customized reader (I’m an old school die-hard fan of Netvibes, but Google Reader or others are great too). One online portal gives you a quick glimpse at all the headlines you request. In addition to using RSS feeds, you should also know how to set up an RSS feed for your own sites.

In summary, it’s important to let technology be your friend. Be not afraid. Online tutorials are popular, so chances are someone else has asked the exact same question you have, and someone has responded with an authoritative answer. It’s all a learning process so go with the flow.

What technical skills are most important for you to do your job effectively?

Rules. From our earliest recollection as a toddler, we were taught to “obey the rules.” I’ve always been a do-gooder (yep, I was that kid) so this has been easy for me. However, if rules are written in legal-ese, it takes a bit longer for me to figure out how to do right.

In our industry (marketing, and in my case in particular, PR) we have a responsibility to be current on the rules set forth by the mediums we use in order to best serve ourselves and our clients. For example, there are rules to using Twitter. Some are common sense (don’t say anything inappropriate while representing your brand), some are best practices (RT people whose work you admire and you found helpful), and some are set forth by the medium itself (follow, update, and API limits) .

Today I want to highlight a very important “rule change” the happened in November one of our most popular mediums: Facebook.

Do you have a business Page on Facebook? Have you ever thought about giving away a t-shirt to your 1,000th fan? Think again. Facebook changed its promotion guidelines on November 9, 2009. Now, before you do any “promotional activity” on Facebook you need to ask permission. And they need to grant you permission. This could take a week or so – make sure you budget in the time. When Facebook approves you have to give them credit too. Maybe this will help them police the promotions? Lend credibility to the contest?

Oh, and Cabot Cheese? Sorry, but you can’t give away a block of your oh-so-yummy cheddar via Facebook anymore. Dairy is excluded, as is tobacco, gambling, firearms, prescription drugs and a few other things.

You can no longer win a contest by becoming a fan. OK, this one isn’t that bad – it just means we have to be more creative. So maybe I’ll hold a best photo contest and have fans post to the photo page! Nope, disqualified as well. You can no longer have a winner post a comment, post to the Page’s wall, or several other ways – all using Facebook as a medium. Creativity, here we come. Third-party aps can help overcome this hurdle. My favorite radio station gave away a trip to an awards show a few weeks ago and all I had to do was fan the page to qualify (no, I didn’t win). That can no longer happen. I’ll have to work harder as a fan.

Now, if you make it though all these steps and you are a legitimate promotion you may need to contact a winner. Get this: you cannot notify the winner through Facebook. This one makes me say Hmmmmm…

Finally, if you chose to give away a gallon of milk to the 28th person to post a comment about why they love milk, Facebook can banish you. They may just remove the offending material, but they do warn of their ability to disable your account or page. Yikes.

So, without passing judgment on every little decision Facebook makes, I find myself wondering how I can best capitalize on the new rules set forth for my clients. These rules will definitely reduce the amount of spam that is on Facebook. But from a personal standpoint, I am left wondering how much effort will it now take before I can win Kohl’s gift card before Christmas?

What do you think about the new rules? Fair or impossible? How will you creatively combat a system desperately trying to monetize itself?

Gloria reveals her passion in the latest installment of “Two Minutes with the Real GY&K”. Do you agree? Disagree? We want to know!

Two Minutes with the Real GY&K: Gloria Proulx

Stay tuned: next Friday we’ll tackle another interesting question with one of our esteemed colleagues!

In the latest installment of “Two Minutes with the Real GY&K,” our director of business development, Brady Sadler, dishes about how music gets him in the right frame of mind to do what he does.

Two Minutes with the Real GY&K: Brady Sadler

Make sure you follow him on twitter: @BR80 and stay tuned for next Friday’s edition to hear another behind-the-scenes story.