Flack's Revenge

Who ARE You Today? The Question Ties PR Field Up in Knots

Asking the PR profession to agree on a definition for what it should be today has tied the field up in knots.

There has been much blog debate about PRSA's efforts to redefine public relations, and lots of dialog on Twitter (check out the hash tag #prdefined to track the conversations).  And it is not just insular industry chatter, e.g. the NY Times covered the effort a couple of the months ago (see Redefining Public Relations in an Age of Social Media).

I guess it is like the cobbler's kids that don't have shoes - us PR folks are supposed to be great communicators, yet can sometimes struggle when we are the client. The question can be a lightening rod, too, and asking it - as well as expecting an answer that everyone can agree upon - is not easy.

I had been sitting quietly on the sidelines until I got an email from Heidi Sullivan of the Cision blog. She asked me late in the day last Friday on my thoughts, for a post she was working on - I decided that I was tired of procrastinating about the topic and came up with something I thought was simple and to the point:

“I define public relations as the practice that helps companies, people and brands express themselves in the best possible way.  It is about helping them communicate – directly, and with and through intermediaries – to advance their objectives.”

You can see what others thought by visiting the Cision blog, and checking out the three leading contenders on the PRSA site (the industry group is now asking for comments before putting this to bed).

Perhaps it is misguided and overly ambitious to expect everyone to agree on a single definition for such a diverse  field.  You can't help but think that the result will be a camel, that is a horse built by a committee.

But I am glad that I finally gave it some thought and responded, and urge others who have not had their voices heard to chime in too.

PR: Stressed for Success

There has been a lot of Twitter buzz in the wake of a CareerCast study that listed public relations as one of the most stressful professions.

I believe that PR can be a very rewarding career, but do find it stressful at times (in particular, life at a PR agency can have its trying moments).  The fact that few people understand what the field is about can also be frustrating - I find that I am constantly explaining what I do for a living .  I think my kids finally understand what PR is, although at first they were hoping that my career can somehow help them get on TV.

Awhile back, I wrote on the Fusion agency blog about the field and its challenges in my post PR's Moment of Truth.

The reputation of PR is not helped by the fact that many people outside the profession simply do not understand what it is about.

When you think about it, it is simply amazing that we go out there and get the job done every day, considering the many skills that the average PR person who manages accounts is expected to master. He or she must be a word smith; a storyteller; a good conversationalist; a salesperson; a customer support person; a marketing strategist; a manager and resource coordinator; an MC of sorts, to facilitate interviews and press events; and a media specialist.

 

 

Socializing Content Marketing: Overcoming 4 Obstacles

I wrote my second column for the Windmill Networking blog.  It ran yesterday, and picked up where my first
post left off (that one covered the benefits of combining social media and content marketing).

Yesterday's story was about overcoming obstacles, and suggested the following new year's resolutions (see below for an excerpt):

1. Marketers should resolve to get smarter about social media.  They must roll up their sleeves, jump into social media, and master the ins and outs of each network (I understand that just about everyone participates these days; however there is a big difference between being a passive dabbler and an expert; if you are to master it you need study what works, experiment, and constantly learn – especially about metrics and how to improve them).
2. Be open to new ideas about content. To be successful, you need to go through a shift in thinking. What this means is that the marketing content that you use for social media cannot be thinly veiled sales materials.   Your content needs to be something that is authentic, strikes the right tone and delivers truly useful information.
3. Look beyond technology and process.  It is not all just about technology – while there is technology involved, it is easy to get lost in a thicket of APIs, SEO, algorithms, auto-posting, curation technologies, etc.
4. Stop chasing the viral Holy Grail.

The post goes into much more detail: I encourage you to visit the link and read the full article.

 

 

Louis CK Conquers Media, Heeds Mom's Advice: Just Tell Them Everything

Louis CK is a comic hero for every man, an unkempt alternative to the more mainstream comedians (think Seinfeld or Dane Cook).  He is irreverent, dark and just plain damn funny.

I have greatly enjoyed Louie's work, inlcuding his  FX and HBO series.  That is why I was pleased to see reports of Louie's recent successful effort to market content directly to his fans.

I first learned about this last week in the GigaOm piece: What Louis CK Knows that Most Media Companies Don't  The article says:

Until recently, comedian Louis CK was known mostly for a hilarious clip about how “everything is amazing but no one is happy,” which lampooned our inability to recognize our own good fortune and led to a TV show. Now, he has become the new poster boy for the idea of selling content directly to fans, after the success of a video download he offered on his website without any digital-rights protection. And that success contains lessons for traditional media companies who continue to lock down their content and otherwise fail to take advantage of the social web.

What Louie did, essentially, was bring his content directly to the public via his website at an affordable price ($5) without imposing restrictions or digital rights protection - avoiding the tangle of overhead, middlemen fees etc. that he otherwise would have had to pay. In other words, Louie made it cheap and easy - and is profiting in the process. He has also been getting a ton of great press.

The NY Times' David Carr covered this yesterday in his Media Equation column:

The show could be viewed as the consumer wished, with no rights protection or expensive subscription. A buy-it-and-watch-it proposition, no cable company involved...While I was talking with him on the phone Thursday night, he checked his Web site and about 175,000 people had bought his special through PayPal. He expected 200,000 total downloads by the weekend, which meant he would have grossed $1 million. After covering costs of about $250,000 for the live production and the Web site, that’s a $750,000 profit. And he owns the rights, and the long tail of buyers, in perpetuity.

As a PR person, I had to chuckle about his approach, and media relations advice that Louie's mom gave him (from NY Times).

The transparency of the enterprise, including its cost in relation to how many people bought in, was the subject of media coverage all last week.... “It feels weird having numbers out there, because that’s my personal income,” he said. “But I talked to my mom, who is a pretty judicious, careful person, and she said, ‘Tell them everything. Just let it all get out there.’ So that’s what I have been doing...” 

I don't know if I would always agree with that approach, but the advice seems to be working for Louie.

Water Cooler Chat: Movies to See if you are in PR

Someone at Fusion sent around an email recommending a documentary, I replied, and before you knew it we had a lively thread about good movies to see if you are in PR - and fodder for this blog post.

I list the movies below, in no particular order, and the text of the emails as well, which provide additional color.  Hope you enjoy, and please feel free to chime in with other suggestions.

• Page One - Inside the New York Times
• Phone Booth
• Wag the Dog
• Sweet Smell of Success
• Happy Gilmore
• Exit through the Gift Shop
• Thank You for Smoking
• The Persuaders

Victoria:  Although it is a year or so old, I wanted to recommend the documentary “Page One – Inside The New York Times.” Coming from a journalism background and with my career experience in PR, I think it was an interesting snapshot into a trying time for traditional newspapers. We’ve all lived through the industry wide meltdown and surely you’ll be familiar with the journalists showcased in the film...

Bob: Yes I have wanted to see that – any other good movies for PR people to see? There are some dark ones about the profession and publicity agents:

1. Sweet Smell of Success – classic with Burt Lancaster
2. Phone Booth – Colin Farrell is a PR guy, did not see this
3. Thank you for Smoking – About a tobacco industry apologist / PR guy

Heather: Business Insider did a whole article in September….Some good movies on the list, but I wouldn’t call them accurate of the field...."Wag the Dog", excellent flick

Mark: I saw "Phone Booth" – Colin plays a sleazy celebrity publicist. Not one to emulate! I liked the movie though. “Happy Gilmore” finds Adam Sandler’s violent hockey-loving golfer falling in love with a publicist for the golf tournament (played by an actress who now stars on “Modern Family”)! “Exit Through The Gift Shop” is a hilarious documentary about a talentless wannabe graffiti artist who self-promotes his way to success in the NYC art scene. Some pretty good PR lessons therein…. I haven’t seen it, but Amazon has a DVD of a Frontline episode called “The Persuaders,” focusing on the advertising and PR professions.

Wall Street Journal says Product News can Counter Bad Buzz and Lift Stocks

The Journal wrote last week about the effects (both good and bad) that social media reviews and other forms of online chatter can have on a company's stock price.

Online reviews can...have an impact on the stock price of the companies offering those products, lowering average returns by nearly 0.1% in as little as three days, according to a new study...

In what should be good news for stock pickers that have a social media analytics bent, the data can apparently predict a stock's performance:

Both positive and negative user-generated chatter seemed to predict market returns a few days ahead of time, the study found.

In what shoulld be good news for tech PR and marketing, the article concludes that issuing a press release can help:

Managers can take steps to combat negative reviews. New product announcements can increase positive buzz about digital products, such as cellphones and computers

It is an interesting time for buzz about social media buzz; Judy Gombita, a friend and co-contributor at Neal Schaffer's Windmill Networking blog (yes, I just signed on to blog there as well), wrote a great post yesterday about what social media buzz can mean for crisis management.  Judy also pointed me to a good article in the Telegraph about online chatter and blunders in social media marketing

PR News Digital Guide: Boosting Social Media & PR with Content Curation

PR News Digital Guidebook is out now, and I am pleased to say that it includes an article I wrote on how to boost PR and social media results with content curation.

Please see below for a brief excerpt

Do you want a better way to generate high-quality social media content and connect with your target audiences? Are you looking to keep your organization’s teams informed about relevant contents, trends and topics? If so, you need to add content curation, an increasingly important skill set for communicators, to your repertoire....

How Content Curation Works

Before embarking on a content curation program, you must understand what will be involved in terms of process, technology and methods... the magnitude of the effort needed to support content curation can vary quite a bit. Tracking down relevant topics in areas where there’s much social media chatter and well-known consumer brands represents a much different challenge than doing the same in niche B2B areas.

The article provides tips and answers the following questions:

• How to use different types of curation
• Which articles should be selected or ignored?
• How to measure your efforts and tell when it is working

The article includes exceprts from an interview with Tom Riddle of CIThread.  CIThread is a hosted content curation platform, and the technology behind our own Tech Marketing Scoop.

I wrote a couple of articles for various PR News guides last year; and was happy to contribute again.  Their guidebooks have lots of useful information; it is always blast around this time of year to get my copy, see how the article came out and read articles from others in the field.

I urge you to visit the link and order the book

Are Penn State and other Schools like Teflon when it Comes to Crises?

In the Jewish religion, there is a saying we keep in mind to help us stay strong during tough times: "this too  shall pass."

A story in the New York Times sports section yesterday - Some Lessons in Damage Control - reminded me of this. The main message of that article is that there often is not much long term impact of crises on universities.

Times writer Tamar Lewin took a look at possible long term effects of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal on the school within the context of how others fared, using Texas A & M, Virginia Tech, Duke and Indiana Universities as examples (which involved a bonfire collapse, shooting rampage, false rape accusations, and firing of Coach Bob Knight, respectively).

Lewin writes:

While the turmoil at Penn State has been the academic equivalent of a Category 5 storm, it will probably not have much long-term impact on the university, experts say.... Certainly, it will take years, perhaps a decade, to resolve the fallout from the sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed the football program.... But citing other universities’ experiences with crises, many higher education officials and crisis-management specialists predict that the effects will not last a year.

The statements in the above paragraph sound contradictory, don't they?  If it is true that the effects will not last a year despite the "years, perhaps a decade to resolve the fallout" - what could be the reason for this?

Perhaps the answers can be found in the following quotes from the article regarding crises at Virgina Tech and Penn State:

“It might sound trite, but prospective students and their families saw on TV a united student body and incredibly supportive alumni population working together with strong university leadership,” said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech. “It was painful and stressful, but the institution kept moving in the right directions, dealt openly with problems and shared our experiences with others..."

Hartle [of] the American Council on Education, said he thought it was a matter of time before Penn State again deserved its nickname, Happy Valley.

“With some deft outreach and some hard work, even the angry students on the streets this week are likely to become, like their predecessors, happy and loyal supporters,” he said. “Colleges and universities are much bigger than any one individual or scandal. Their crises become part of their history.

App Against the Wall (Yer Busted, and, Yes, There's an App for That)

It is tempting to think, wouldn't it be great if all of life's problems could be solved with a simple app?

This question occurred to me as I read a NY Times article yesterday; About to be Hauled off in Handcuffs? Press Send. It described an app, inspred by the Occupy Wall Street movement, that can help you if you are getting arrested. 

According to the article, the I'm Getting Arrested app:

... allows users to write a message and identify recipients — friends, family, a lawyer — in advance. Then... they can push a button to send a text message blast.

So, how is this relevant to PR? The rise of smart phones has led to a growth in apps (see my post It's an App, App, App, App, App, App, App World). Apps and tablets are now transforming how people receive, consume and share content. These trends mean big things for PR:

1. If you are in tech PR, you may have an app company for a client one day
2. New ways of computing mean new tools that can support our work
3. People are using these apps and tablets to receive and share news

No, there is not (for better or worse) simple apps that can solve all of our problems, including the challenges that we face every day in PR. However, through this series, I hope to help readers better understand the app and tablet world, and what this means for PR.

Please stay tuned for the next installment (and lots of bad app puns too!).

4 Pillars of Effective Blogging

It can be a challenge to implement and sustain successful corporate blogging programs.  Today, Tom Riddle of CIThread has contributed a guest post on the Social Fluency blog about this topic.

He describes the challenges and starts to outline solutions,as part of a series on how content curation can breathe life into corporate blogging programs.  Here is an excerpt (below, in italics).  I encourage you to visit the link and read the full post:

Blogging programs are almost always a good idea... After a month or two however, most programs start to fall off the rails. Why? Everyone is busy with the roles and responsibilities that come with their day jobs. Most aren’t skilled writers...

The best blog posts involve ideas that:

1. Are timely
2. Reflect your area of expertise
3. Align with interests of your constituencies
4. Are written in a conversational style