Flack's Revenge

Matt Lauer Challenges Santelli in Defense of PR

Matt Lauer Comes to the Defense of PR

It is interesting to watch and get a sense of the new Obama administration's communications style, to see if some of the tactics that proved to be  effective in campaign mode carry over to governing.

So far, I am encouraged to observe that they are aggressive and using all available means to communicate and defend their policies.

As an example, some of you may have caught the dust up with CNBC reporter Rick Santelli.   He had come out extremely critical of the administration's housing bailout plan.  See this Washington Post link for more context: Gibbs Takes on Santelli.  According to the article, in a wildly popular YouTube video, Santelli ranted and ended with:

"President Obama! Are you listening?" Santelli demanded.

Apparently someone in the White House was. In response, Gibbs attacked Santelli by name repeatedly, accusing him of not having read the president's housing plan and mocking the former derivatives trader as not being an effective spokesman for the little guy.

"I'm not entirely sure where Mr. Santelli lives or in what house he lives," Gibbs told reporters, his voice dripping with derision. "Mr. Santelli has argued -- I think quite wrongly -- that this plan won't help everyone. This plan will help, by the money that's invested in Freddie and Fannie, will drive down mortgage rates for millions of Americans."

Later, Gibbs added: "Now, every day when I come out here, I spend a little time reading, studying on the issues, asking people who are smarter than I am questions about those issues. I would encourage him to read the president's plan and understand that it will help millions of people, many of whom he knows. I'd be more than happy to have him come here and read it. I'd be happy to buy him a cup of coffee, decaf."

Agree or disagree with the administration, you have to admire their pluck and in particular Press Secretary Robert Gibbs'  defense.

On the Today Show this morning Matt Lauer interviewed Santelli.  Lauer noted that Rick had said he felt that Robert Gibbs was threatening him.  Although Rick tried to downplay this characterization, he did whine that it was unfair to be personally singled out and mentioned by Gibbs.

Here's the play by play below, and you can check out the YouTube video above:

Lauer:  If you go out of your way to call out the POTUS, you have to expect that  his representative may go out of his way to call you out.  Doesn't that go with the territory?

Santelli:  As a member of the press, do I not get to ask a question?

Lauer: And as the Press Secretary, doesn't he have the right to ask you a question?

Go Matt! (Santelli, if you want to call this blog out by name on national TV by all means, feel free!)

Just "Planting Seeds" About RSS

Has RSS Outlived its Usefulness?

I am not making predictions or highly exaggerating reports of the demise of RSS, just "planting seeds" as the hilarious (and unfortunately deceased) comedian Bill Hicks might say (see this video for more context).

I fell in love with RSS years ago because it provides a way to get updates directly from websites without waiting for a search engine to index fresh content.  OPML gave me a way to easily load tons of RSS channels into my news reader, and my news reader let me filter the flood of information.

However these days it seems like my newsreader gets gummed up with so many feeds.  The search engines are doing a pretty effective job of indexing content and provide a variety of alerts.  They inevitably cast a much wider net, and make the practice of searching and loading individual RSS channels now seem slow and backwards.  Loading channels in bulk does not remove the need to do some selection and quality control, so you still need to comb through lists of feeds.

Social news sites help you scan lists of stories and sources and identify the hot topics.

I am starting to think that RSS is not adding much value these days.  It just creates a redundant set of content that needs to be indexed, content which in many cases is just a snapshot of what can be found by visiting the the actual Web page.

I realize that RSS is part of the larger Web 2.0 ecosystem, and some things might "break" without it.  Just thought I'd put this thought out there and see if anyone agrees, and (if so) get dialog going about what can or should be done to remedy the situation.

From "Command and Control" to a Decentralized Marketing Model

It has occurred to me that the reason most companies (and corporate marketing departments in particular) just don't get it when it comes to social media is that they are having a hard time leaving behind the rapidly receding world of asymmetrical communications - i.e., of top down, "command and control" programs, where the marketing department pushes out messages in one direction, generally with and through various media channels.

There is nothing that radical or insightful in the above statement, many have been saying for some time that marketing these days needs to be more of a conversation and less about one sided lectures and interruption.

The challenge is to find a practical way to put this into practice.  It seems to me that success will mean first understanding that old style, top down marketing tactics will seem increasingly shrill and out of step. 

Instead, forward thinking companies will become more decentralized in their marketing and communications.  They will increasingly put tools out there to arm influencers, peers, enthusiasts, customers and prospects, as well as employees - and then get out of the way and let the magic happen.  This means providing brand stewards and fans with tools and content to help them spread the word.

The loss of control that comes with a decentralized approach may seem scary.  Here's a news flash: we really have no choice because it is happening anyway.   Brands lost control over the message long ago.

A decentralized approach does not necessarily mean resigning yourself to having the "unwashed masses" run roughshod over your brand as they pull it in a million directions while you stand by powerlessly.  Marketers can and should listen and engage when appropriate - not in a heavy handed way, but with the right approach you (and your fellow brand loyalists) can defend the brand and gently try to guide the dialog where appropriate.

Dave Evans said this very eloquently in his recent ClickZ piece Take Control by Letting Go.

Relax the reins on your social efforts, and let your participation and the great experiences you create with your operations team guide the conversations. When they take an odd twist, don't panic: Instead, jump in and gently guide the conversation. Be a part of it. Ultimately, if what you deliver syncs with the values of your customers, the conversation will go where you want. That's a beautiful thing.

In an article in Media Post Online Spin a couple of weeks ago, Joe Marchese posed the question:

There is a quiet battle raging in the advertising industry over who will become the Agency of Record (AOR) for marketers' social media efforts.

In light of the above, I am not sure I agree with the premise that monolithic AORs are the way of the future.

I'll be blogging more on this topic so please stay tuned.

PR and the Decline of Western Civilization

USA Today reviewed the book "PR: A Persuasive Industry? Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of Modern Media"

I have not read the book yet, but the review included some interesting tidbits worth commenting on.

The authors are apparently from the field of PR (can you really call PR an "industry").  Judging from the title, anyway, it would seem to be a sensationalistic and negative take on the profession, although, according to the reviewer, the authors take a balanced view.

Reviewer Seth Brown starts out by noting: Public relations, oddly enough does not have great PR.

A little later he says: Industry professionals come down on both sides of the issue.  Some say that PR is generally truthful while other say that white lies are part of the job.  A poll of insiders revealed that most don't feel that telling the truth is part of the job.

Here it is not clear whether he is getting this from the book or from other sources; a reference would have been nice.  I am not sure what "insiders" were polled, but it seems like an outrageous statement that everyone I know in PR would dispute.

At worst it seems downright inflammatory and inaccurate, at best it presents a naive and incomplete view.  As anyone skilled in the art of rhetoric knows - politicians, lawyers, pundits, educators, yes journalists, too - there are many shades of truth and presenting a side of reality that is consistent with your worldview while not going out of your way to simultaneously argue an opposing view is not quite the same thing as being a liar.

Another interesting conclusion has to do with PR's role as being a major influencer of the news of the day.  Obviously, an important goal of PR is to get our clients portrayed prominently and favorably in the media.  Despite the (at best) ambivalent view of journalists towards PR, according to the review:

Yet without the PR industry, Morris and Goldsworthy argue, there would be little news.  A 2008 study of news stories in U.K. newspapers found that more than half contained mostly PR material.  A study in the Columbia Journalism Review found that more than half the stories in an edition of the Wall Street Journal "were based solely on press releases."

Here I feel very mixed.  On the one hand I am impressed that we apparently have this much of a role in shaping the news.  On the other hand, again, this does not seem to jibe with reality and I am sure the good hard working journalists at the respective publications would take issue with the conclusions.

The review does say that it is not easy to evaluate the role pf PR, and correctly notes that PR is low cost when compared with advertising.  According to the Seth Brown, the authors do defend PR and say that it is by itself amoral, hard to define and important to a free press.

Brown concludes: If you are looking for a book to conclusively answer your PR questions, keep looking.

What questions?  Does everything need to have precise boundaries and be easily reduced?

Advanced Media Training: Preparing for the Larry King Show

So congratulations, you have secured that all important gig on CNN's Larry King show.

What does one do to prepare for this?  The video below offers some assistance.  It provides a simulator that will take you though the rigors of an actual Larry King interview.

Watch it, learn and enjoy. Make sure to hold on to your seat, though, the ride can be harrowing at times.

Larry King Simulator Prepares Astronauts for Rigors of an Interview with Larry King (The Onion)

Observations from the Tech PR Front Lines

There are a bunch of conversations, thoughts and resources I had meant to turn some into blog posts over the past few weeks.  Working under the theory that one big post is better than a bunch of minor ones, I thought I'd blog this cathartic recitation.

First I'd like to point out what many in the business already know - that the economy has not ignored the tech sector in general, including tech PR and I can't remember a time when there are more genuinely talented people on the streets - at all levels - looking for work.

A friend of mine - a tech heavy hitter who has held C -level gigs at IBM and startups - predicted that the only professionals who will be spared are those who have hard skills that contribute to the bottom line.  In the realm of marketing services, he specifically called out performance marketing.

This WSJ article talks about some recent advances in performance-driven advertising.  This Wikipedia definition of Affiliate Marketing has a section on Performance Marketing.  What it generally means is that the advertiser does not pay unless someone takes an action, for example clicks on an ad or search result.  The logic behind this is that advertisers pay based on users' actions that send out some kind buying sign or interest that is more than just casual.

Sounds alluring, until you learn about a sobering statistic that NY Times reported yesterday:

In the last quarter, an estimated 17.1 percent of all clicks on Internet advertisements were fraudulently generated, according to Click Forensics, a firm that analyzes traffic on behalf of advertisers and ad networks.

As I have mentioned in this blog, more of the work I have been involved with these days relates to using PR and direct marketing for sales lead generation.

The Value of PR, Especially for Smaller Tech Companies

We gathered some info to help a client contact get additional funding for PR.  Part of this was documenting the results we had achieved, and we also chatted with some journalists.  One well-known tech reporter at a major daily said that he is obligated to cover the major vendors, and probably would not get to the smaller ones without a push from PR.

Online vs. Print Results

I met with a former client who rose from marketing VP (when we last worked with him) to his current role of COO for a small tech services company.  He has less hands-on involvement with PR these days than when we worked him, yet still perceived the shift in our business - the rise in importance of online media and retrenchment of tech trades.

In another sign of the times, we are planning a large campaign and the client specifically said he was most interested in online coverage.

This post by Paul Gillin yesterday talks about how some online placements did better for him than a hit in The New Yorker

Into the Vortex: Our Turn in front of the News Cameras

Our family had a pretty wild experience this weekend.  Being in the PR business, I try to keep an ear to the ground as far as what stories the news media are working on.  My colleague Lisa alerted me that The CBS Early Show was looking for a family to test out a new mobile application for an exclusive story they were pursuing.

I am normally camera shy, and so is my wife, but my two teen daughters are constantly wondering how their dad's somewhat baffling profession can somehow get them on TV.  To my wife's chagrin (and daughters' delight), I volunteered us for the story.

This resulted in the CBS team - including CBS News Contributor Natali Del Conte, and producers Matt and Joy coming to our house on Saturday and spending lots of time with us.  They were an extremely professional crew, and a pleasure to work with.

Unforeseen glitches occurred when Google ran into problems (see the InformationWeek story).  Also, cell phone coverage is spotty in our area, particularly for T Mobile, the network for the Android pones they equipped us with.  This made it a little harder to capture scenes in which we were using the phones and application - a location-based service called Latitude that combines Google maps and cell technology to help friends and families keep tabs on one another.  Also, the scarcity of cell towers in our area made it a bit harder to pinpoint our specific locations because the technology relies on triangulation (the advantage, on the other hand, is that you do not need special GPS-equipped phones).

They left us with the phones, and video cameras to record our experiences.  When it turned out they needed more footage, Joy gamely came out to our house at 4:45AM on Monday morning to capture a morning-in-the-life (my wife is up and out of the house very early) on camera.   Joy then proceeded to follow me onto my Metro North train and film my morning commute, which was bit surreal.

They say in the PR profession that you are not the story, we generally labor away behind the scenes.   Having said that, being part of this story was a great learning experience for me.   From a tech PR perspective, I learned more about CNET's integration with CBS news  (Natali is also host of Loaded on CNET TV), and how a piece like this gets produced.   I got a chance to meet Natali and the others (I joked with them that they would never get rid of me now).

We had the opportunity to work with a pretty cool application, and had great fun with the Android, a super phone.  And it was a blast for the entire family, to be on a major network news show.

Click here to view the finished piece, which ran this morning

Fed Up

I am consumed by feeds.   RSS, social network updates and Twitter provide an unprecedented ability to tune in to content and conversations and catch what is being buzzed about almost instantly.

Services like Ping.fm let you update several feeds from one place.  FriendFeed  gives you a way to monitor the various streams of friends and influencers.

I tell my teams here that if you have the (if not quite God-given, OK Twitter-given) gift to tune into what the top influencers are buzzing about from moment to moment, why would you not do that?  And indeed we are, in increasing numbers, and finding that the technology can be another way to understand and engage with those who have reach into audiences of interest.

Where is all of this going?  Will people tire of all this chatter?  Will they at some point just stop pinging, Tweeting, etc.?

One thing is for sure, I am more convinced than ever that Web 3.0 = social Web, forget the semantic Web, what is really exciting is the ability to crowdsource, make connections and search and manage knowledge (the semantic Web crowd will say they do the latter but we are still waiting for a way to do this that does not involve a forklift upgrade effort).

I am still looking for a better way to organize all this information.   Please comment here if you know of any console that can let me define a rich set of rules, tailor what is presented and how, and alert me to what is important.

I feel some of the most exciting work will be in the area of search and presentation of Web-based information, this blog has covered some of the newer entrants.  The search incumbents should be afraid, very afraid, and are hopefully hard at work on the challenge too.