What do you think of the Cheeseburger Bill?

This week, a Minnesota House panel approved legislation that would block consumers from suing fast-food chains and other food companies for weight problems. The Civil Law Committee approved the Personality Responsibility in Food Consumption Act on a voice vote. The proposal is also know as the "cheeseburger bill."

The bill would prevent consumers for suing the food industry for weight gain, obesity and other health problems caused by long-term consumption of fattening foods and non-alcohol drinks such as soda.

The sponsor, Republican Rep. Dean Urdahl of Grove City, says the bill would prevent frivolous lawsuits. Urdahl has been pushing this legislation since 2004. So far, this bill has been passed in 24 states.

I'm a fan of the cheeseburger bill. I think it promotes personal responsibility and I agree, it prevents annoying lawsuits. McDonalds has been brought to court numerous times for being the problem for many consumers obesity, ever since their 2002 New York court case. It is still pending and I think it's silly. Eat something different, don't eat a cheeseburger and french fries everyday!

What is Klout?

I just learned of the website Klout, an online personal profile social media influence measurement tool. It's pretty cool if you're social media savvy and interact a lot using social media tools.

People are given an 'online score' which measures your overall online influence. The score ranges from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages.

Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100.

Network Score indicates how influential your engage audience is and is also on a scale of 1 to 100.

The Klout Score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets. I recommend you check out your own Klout Score if you use social media a lot. Learn more: www.klout.com

Was the 2011 Super Bowl the Greenest NFL Championship Ever?

Just Energy, a green energy retailer supplying renewable energy certificates to Super Bowl venues, is claiming that "the 2011 Super Bowl will be the greenest NFL championship on record." Is this true, or is it just greenwashing?

Just Energy is contributing heavily to the Super Bowl's sustainability with a commitment to offset all direct and indirect carbon emissions from power generation at major Super Bowl venues, including NFL Super Bowl headquarters, the Super Bowl Media Center, the AFC and NFC team hotels, and even the NFL Experience Football Theme Park. For every megawatt of electricity used to power these facilities, Just Energy is purchasing one megawatt of renewable energy from Sweetwater Wind Farm in Sweetwater, Texas. This will be the largest renewable energy credit program in Super Bowl history.

and then there is Cowboy Stadium, the site of this year's game. The stadium, which was the first to be recognized in the EPA's National Environmental Performance Track Program, has targets to cut solid waste by 25%, water consumption by 1 million gallons, and energy use by 20% each year. All solid waste from the Super Bowl will be diverted to local recycling projects, and leftover materials will be sent to local non-profits.

This year is also the debut of the Super Grow XLV program, a partnership between the Texas Trees Foundation and the Texas Forest Service that planted over 6,500 trees in 12 north Texas communities, marketing it the biggest tree-planting effort in Super Bowl history (other Super Bowl-connected tree-planting efforts have been going on for years). The program is intended to offset CO2 emissions from Super Bowl events.

Do these efforts add up to a truly sustainable sporting event? Soft of. Just Energy's renewable energy credits are helpful, but they aren't sustainable as producing all that renewable energy on site. And this year's event will use 15,000 megawatts of power, or enough electricity to power 1,500 homes for a year. It would be more impressive if the NFL could cut that number in half, but the Cowboy stadium does, at least, have noble energy goals, and the NFL is doing more in the sustainability arena for this year's game than it ever has before. Let's just hope every year from now on features the "greenest NFL championship" yet.

How to Pitch a Reporter Using Twitter

I've recently started to use Twitter as a means of pitching my clients. Public relations is still quite a new line of work, but the reality is that PR professionals cannot always just do the same thing, we cannot always rely on sending a pitch and making follow-up calls to see success in our work. As PR professionals we need to keep evolving and thinking of new ways of reaching media. I think Twitter is a great way to do this. Why? Because first, many reporters are doing freelancing and don't have a specific outlet, phone number or email address, and second, most of the reporters we're trying to reach are there and posing questions to their followers! Here is what I've found to be the most successful ways to start the conversation with the media you want to through Twitter.

1. Introduce yourself. Don't jump right into your pitch, especially if you've never contacted this person before. Say "hello!" Otherwise, you're being creepy and rude.
2. Keep it brief. This may seem like a given, as it's Twitter, but try to keep your pitch to the point and don't send more than two tweets relating to the pitch. No one wants to read a book when they check their @ messages.
3. Don't use "netspeak." It's your prerogative to tell your BFF that you're "LOL"-ing at her joke and will "<3u4eva," but keep it professional for a pitch.
4. Link it up! 140 characters isn't going to be enough to hook someone (or event get them to remember what you're talking about five minutes later), so include a link with all the details.
5. Keep the conversation going. Don't pitch and ditch - keep engaging with your new contact (even if they decline your pitch)! You might be making a valuable relationship.

Have any experience with this sort of pitching? Please share your story! Happy tweeting!

The Day Has Come, Companies are Finally Giving Something Back to Employees

For the last three years during the 'Great Recession' employees have felt nervous to ask for more from their employers, worrying that their jobs were at stake. But, the day has finally arrived that companies are giving back to hard workers.

Economic analysts say that often when the market resets, some companies' high-potential employees will start looking or new opportunities because they hung in their during tough times and want a fresh start. In order to survive, many companies have cut all of the perks they used to give - pay raises, flexible hours, even free coffee - but more businesses are realizing that if they want to hold on to their best employees they need to give them back the things they enjoy.

FedEx, the St. Paul Hotel, Ford Motor Co., Winnebago and the McKnight Foundation are among many of the companies starting to restore their perks. This is because many of their competitors are sniffing for talent. Another main reason companies are bringing back lost perks is because it's expensive to replace works and in the next decade many of the baby boomer generation will be retiring already.

As the economy recovers, employers are bringing back the goodies. Some are conducting employee surveys, hiring humorists or just bringing back the coffee and cookies that have disappeared. Here are other examples:

Aveda is lifting its ban on employee travel

FedEx and MPR are reinstating 401(K) and 403 (b) matches.

Ford Motor Co., which was thought to be closing soon, actually saw a raise in sales this last year and plans to hire 7,000 U.S. employees

The St. Paul Hotel has said that business has picked back up and they are restoring most of its 275 hourly works to full-time status. Also, they are breaking out the brownies, cookies and popcorn to revive its all-employee meetings

3M Co. froze wages in 2009, but now has reinstated merit pay last year.

Cambria Inc. rehired about 70 laid-off factory workers last year.

The Marsh fitness club in Minnetonka held its first staff party January 7th after a three-year hiatus.

Besides the fun job perks bring, they provide a lot more - employee satisfaction, and when you happy employees they are going to want to stay and create a happy company.

More optimism is buzzing than ever since 2007 and companies see that now that they can afford some perks, they need to give them, especially since turnover costs a lot more. I think is only going to get better from here.