Flack's Revenge

Now, you too can be a Political PR Playa

You love reading about their campaigns in all the major media. You aspire to their level of PR sophistication.  Although you realize that their world is harsh, unforgiving and demanding, you somehow covet their klieg lights and glory and believe that this is where the real PR action is.

Well, step right up, tech PR folks.  Now you too can learn about PR political style, and can adapt all their tools and techniques to your next tech PR campaign.  In one easy lesson I will teach you how to:

• Trick out your war room so that is has feeds and displays that rival CES and intelligence that is the envy of the CIA
• Craft position papers and conduct opposition research
• Leak with the best of them and go on deep background
• Drive the other side crazy with astroturf campaigns and dirty tricks
• Develop enemies lists
• Plant negative stories
• Hobnob with the power brokers and elite
• Dodge fire at press briefings and arrange photo opps
• Spew lines like "They're killing us in Detroit.  We need to rally our base and get you on Larry King, stat!" with aplomb

All kidding aside, I do hold a kind of bizarre fascination for political PR, which stems from my addiction to news and passion for politics.  I somehow wound up in tech PR, which kind of makes sense considering I studied and worked in tech previously.

It is an ambivalent feeling.  On the one hand I do think that many in political PR are on the cutting edge of our craft. Then again, it seems to be take no prisoners, cutthroat PR.  You can gather this from reading about the results of their campaigns and inferring what is going on behind the scenes.  Sometimes articles lay out PR tactics in gory detail.  Also, I had first-hand experience: the Obama campaign hired away one of our top guys last year for a "once in a lifetime opportunity" that amounted to a four month gig.  They insisted he decide and start immediately, and we were screwed out of the customary two week notice (hi Ben!)

There's a practice in business called benchmarking, in which managers study practices in diverse industries outside their own to see what they can learn.  Is it possible that the world of tech PR can learn something from political PR?

We can start exploring this question by examining the topic of astroturfing, the practice of contriving grass roots campaigns.  I saw an Op Ed piece in the NY Times which defended the practice and suggested that it is not all that different from plain old political organizing (actually, reading this gave me the idea for this post).

Food for thought? Or is the idea of co-opting political PR tactics for tech PR not a good one?

Don't be THAT Social Media Person

When it comes to building personal brands, there's been much buzz about building your online presence by working on your profiles and the like.  I feel that there also needs to be some discussion about the way people interact and "behave" online.

As I said in my post Evolution of Core PR Skills, you need to understand the mores of blogs, micro blogs and social networks and be comfortable communicating in these forums.  But what exactly are the mores of social media?  They can vary from community to community, and also are influenced by the nature of the community.

E.g  on Twitter, it is considered to be acceptable and even desirable to repeat your thoughts and those of others verbatim.  Not so on blogs.  Status updates on Facebook that are all business all the time might seem mercenary.

While social media and networking offer endless opportunities to have your message heard, it is important to understand that you are making an impression in the process.  That impression can be good or bad, and it can be lasting.

How you communicate online says things about you.  They may be inaccurate but perception is everything right?

Who are these People?

We all know them; there's (at least) one in every crowd.  You talk to friends, family and coworkers and compare notes, and lo and behold, the same people jump out as irritants.

As networks multiply and more people jump on board the rules of the game evolve.  I often caution people to be wary of so-called social media experts (is there some kind of degree or certification program that I am not aware of?). 

There's no single right way or wrong way; different approaches can work for different people.  And I don't want to fall into the trap of being a Social Media Scold, a social networking type (namely, the people who are constantly calling out the right way and wrong way) that I am sure many find irritating.

Then again this is my blog, my forum and I am allowed to spew here about things that irritate me.  So, without further adieu, here are some of the types that frustrate me:

Town Criers: These are the same ones who, in years before social networks, felt like they had to update people with endless details about their family and business interests via mass email blasts and newsletters.  They are usually all about me me me, all talking and very little back and forth

Name Droppers: These are the flagrant strivers, the ones who feel that the way to elevate their online profiles is to blab about the A listers they hob nob with.

Crypto Fascists:  These are the people who trick out their Tweets with so much inside baseball, hash tags, etc.  I understand the function of hash tags but there's a downside to using them.  You limit your audience by being obscure, and make your missives harder to read.

Blabbers: The ones who monopolize airwaves

Spammers: (genus Facebookus Spammus): Constantly annoying with pokes, applications, invitations

Blurters:  Just spew whatever is on their minds, without much thought to punctuation, spelling or propriety.  Frequently these are the same people that share T.M.I.

No Comment (Can you spare some copper, me brother?)

This blog seems to be one that attracts readers, but not many comments.

I know I get readers from the metrics I track (yes, occasional comments too).  And, every once in awhile, when I get frustrated that my posts do not generate more comments, I am heartened to get a kind note, see Tweets, Facebook comments and sometimes even place on "favorite PR blogs" lists.  (Thanks, Wax blog, Brendan Cooper, Tony Mackey, etc.)

I have a feeling that I am not the only blogger in this situation.  Our time is a zero sum game, and people are increasingly distracted with ever more content choices.  More time reading means less time generating content like comments.  And research has shown that content creators (commenting falls in this category) are far outnumbered by passive content consumers.

I think much of the buzz around content that used to be confined to blogs now takes place on Twitter and social networks. It would be a step forward for the social media world if someone invented a widget, or if the blogging platforms made it possible to aggregate comments related to blog posts from Twitter, Facebook, etc., so that they appear under the related post.

It seems like a no brainer (I am not saying the solution is easy to develop, just the fact that there is a very obvious need).  Is anyone aware of such a solution?  Is it out there and I have just somehow managed to miss it?  Please indulge me and ignore the title of this post.  I don't want to look desperate but comments and answers would be appreciated.

Extra points: what movie is the subtitle of this post from?  Your clue is in the image

Have You Seen this Bank? Stealth Campaigns take on New Meaning

The NY Times wrote that banks are downplaying promotional activities at events to avoid perceptions that they are big spenders and out of touch with the financial realities of the day.

They are apparently not going so far as to totally shun promotions and events; they are just being very low key about their participation.

According to the article:

...where these companies once splashed their names and logos on every polo shirt and tote bag in sight, they are now going to extraordinary lengths not to be noticed.. Take the U.S. Open golf tournament.. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley all brought clients to watch the tournament and dine at a buffet and open bar. But an observer would never have known the banks were there.

Guests of the banks sat at tables, each costing $50,000, with no indication of who was paying for them. Nor were the bank’s names on any of the other displays of corporate sponsors.

Those who plan corporate events call the new practice “stealth spending.” In some cases, a corporate gathering is so well disguised that the event planners may not even know whose event they are working on.

We practically invented the stealth campaign in tech PR. The objective for such campaigns was to build anticipation leading to a payoff in terms of actually revealing info such as company or product launch at some point.  Here, the objective seems to be to stay stealthy, leading one to wonder what they really get out of it, if there are diminishing returns and if it is worth the negative publicity.

Corporate Blogging Tips

I have always thought that corporate blogging is one of those unfortunate, oxymoronic phrases. Blogging at its best is not about corporate formality.  It is more about communicating in a voice that is genuine and authentic.

Having said that, many companies are looking to use blogs to expand their communications efforts and build online influence. Paul Gillin offers excellent advice in his post Blogging Blunders, Part I.

The first tip advises against using the blog as a dumping ground for marketing and PR content such as press releases.

Communications professionals are skilled at delivering messages, not promoting conversations. When presented with another channel, they tend to use it to push out a message. In the worst cases, these messages are nothing more than press releases. Lacking interactivity and insight, they fail to generate any reaction. Worse, they make the company look clueless about the medium.

Although I agree with the larger point, I take issue with the first sentence above; many communications professionals are involved with promoting conversations these days.

He does say PR should be involved, but relegates us to an advisory role

Contributors should be the experts within the company. They are most likely to be the ones who will have meaningful dialogue with the audience. The communications people should focus on big-picture issues like voice, topic selection and quality of writing. They should also sweat details like copy editing. Like orchestra conductors, their role is to bring out the best from the individuals in the ensemble.

With that qualifier, we are on the same page.  I tell clients that the blog is not something that can be completely outsourced to the agency.

He also advises against using the blog for chest beating, over things like awards, saying few people will care.  I generally agree here, with a caveat.  Ideally, people will get to know you and your blog over time.  They will hopefully become familiar with the voices and personalities behind the blog.  To the extent that they care about individual contributors or the company at large, they may well want to know what you are doing and share in your excitement about successes.

Similarly, some people dislike mundane updates on Twitter about what you are doing, and others enjoy these.  It doesn't have to be all business and deep insight all the time.  Some of the most successful blogs and widely followed Tweeters do a fair amount of name dropping, chest beating, etc.

Finally, Gillin suggests getting a distinctive look for the blog by going beyond the canned templates:

It's difficult enough to distinguish yourself among the millions of sites that are already out there. Don't make it worse by looking just like them.

He points out that for a small investment you can get a custom design or, at a minimum, explore the extended set of third party templates.

I offered some tips that go into more detail on this and other apects of blogging in my post Launching a Company blog in 3 Easy Steps.

Lessons on the Power of Narrative from a Horrific Accident and 8 lost lives

She Was Sick

Like a slowly developing Polaroid photo, a portrait began to emerge that described the woman, and the events leading up the tragic accident.

I had been at the Palisades Mall with my family on a Sunday afternoon.  We had taken two cars, and I was on my way back to our home in Croton when I encountered heavy traffic on the Saw Mill Parkway approaching the exit to the Taconic.  As I came up to the exit, I saw that it was closed - no cars were being allowed to get onto the parkway from the Saw Mill.  Something was seriously wrong on the Taconic.  I shot off a text message to my wife about the situation and suggested that she and the kids find an alternate route home.

I turned on the radio and quickly learned that there had been a terrible accident, with eight lives lost.  A woman driving a minivan filled with kids (her own and nieces/nephews) had driven the wrong way on the highway and had crashed into an SUV.

In the hours and days afterwards, facts came out about the events leading up to the crash.  They provided clues that at times filled in some of the blanks of our understanding while also adding to the mystery.

The first clue was the woman's call to her brother from her car.  She seemed disoriented, and to not know where she was.

Clearly the woman had suffered a stroke.

The Woman was Distressed and Possibly Suicidal

As more facts came to light the portrait became clearer and then receded.  Like an object held under water, the woman's shape shifted as waves washed over her. 

We listened to news reports.  We compared notes over meals.

One puzzling bit of information was that the woman drove on the Taconic in the wrong direction for close to two miles, successfully negotiating curves in the highway and staying in her lane while cars sped by in the opposite direction and flashed their lights.

How could she have missed the signs that said Wrong Way before getting on highway?  And, assuming she was suffering from a stroke and was disoriented to the extent that she missed the signs, how could she drive at a steady speed and stay in her lane for close to two miles before crashing into the SUV?

Days later, I chatted about this with some friends following a grueling game of doubles tennis.

One friend mentioned that the woman's cell phone had been found on the Tappan Zee bridge.  We speculated that she may have been suicidal, and possibly contemplated jumping before losing her cell phone and getting back in the car to complete the fateful journey.

The Woman was a Monster

Finally, toxicology reports came out and the reality became clear.  The woman had been blitzed out of her mind, with a blood alcohol level that was double the legal limit and evidence that she had smoked pot within 15 minutes of the crash.  There were six undigested shots of alcohol in her stomach and it was revealed that an empty 1.5 liter bottle of vodka had been found in her car.

The woman was a monster.

In retrospect, it seems clear that this possibility should have been considered, that the woman had been intoxicated.  It explained a number of the confusing facts.  She was so stoned, that she did not know where she was going or what she was doing.  Yet she used what limited faculties she had to stay in her lane for two miles before the crash

Her brother must have been alarmed enough to jump in his car and drive all the way from Long Island to try to find her - not because he thought she was confused.  It seems clear to me that he must have known she was hammered and her passengers were in mortal danger.

But none of us discussed this possibility and I did not hear it mentioned in news reports.  It just did not fit in with the narrative - a suburban mom, driving a carload of kids back from a weekend camping trip in the country in a minivan, the symbol of placid domestic and suburban life.

It just did not compute.  What in retrospect seems so obvious did not even enter into our imaginations.

There are many lessons to learn here.  I hope I do not appear to be too clinical or callous when I note as a professional communicator that the episode teaches us a lesson about the power of narrative to shape our understanding and reality.

Report Predicts Growth for the PR Field

The New York Times reported on communications industry spending plans in an article that summarized the findings of private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

Veronis' Communications Industry Forecast predicts cuts in spending by consumers and businesses  across most areas of the media through 2013. 

However, the report included more bullish numbers for branded entertainment, entertainment media, PR and word of mouth marketing.  According to the article (which inexplicably lumps PR in with media):

Despite all the bad news about the media industry, it is expected to be the third-fastest-growing economic sector over the next five years, after mining and construction. Almost none of that growth is forecast to come from shrinking traditional media, however. Instead, it will be drawn from areas like word-of-mouth marketing and public relations (with a 9.2 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 through 2013), branded entertainment (9.3 percent) and the Internet and mobile devices (10.2 percent).