Flack’s Revenge cited as Top PR Blog

Posted on January 3, 2011 by rgeller

The frown from my “oh well, back at my desk again” post New Year’s blues has turned into a smile as I realized this morning why I suddenly have a bunch of new Twitter followers.

Paul Roberts included Flack’s Revenge in his roundup of top PR blogs (and mentioned my Twitter name as well).

I am in very good company, and am extremely honored to have made Paul’s list (he says in his post that I often beat him to the punch on topics; Paul, if it is any consolation, I’d venture to say that there are just as many times when you are out in front of me).

Paul’s blog is a great read, it should have been on the list (altough I guess it would not be good form to nominate yourself), I have enjoyed the bliog and Twitter exchanges with Paul and often retweet his stuff.

Thanks, Paul and look forward to continuing the collaboration.

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PR 2011 Mashup

Posted on December 30, 2010 by rgeller

‘Tis the season for predictions, state-of-the-industry wraps, and fruitcake. I am not a big fan of fruit cake, it is sickly sweet, and all the pontificating can get pretty rich and heavy too.

But where would we be without these time-honored rituals? They offer a certain comfort and familiarity. As sure as the year will turn, you can also be sure that the world will continue spinning on its axis, we’ll see prediction stories, top trends and news items lists will abound, press releases will not die, and there will be more death and taxes too. On that cheery note, I thought I’d jump in with my own end-of-year post.

It is based on some of the prediction stories I have seen, and top ones cited in Google general Web and blog searches as well as ones that I saw shared on Twitter.

I copied the text from these and plugged them into the Wordle tag cloud generator (below).  An interesting collection of words, although I am not sure if it is that illuminating quite honestly.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and hope you have a happy new year. PR2011

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Battling PR’s Image Problem

Posted on December 23, 2010 by rgeller

It is a thankless and never ending job, battling PR’s image problen, but one that I enjoy doing my small part in nonetheless.  Although the name of my blog might lead people to believe that it is more about score settling, that’s really not the case.  I just want more people to appreciate the good and ethical work that the vast majority of our field is involved with.

On a related note, my post on the Social Fluency blog today discusses the portrayal of the PR field in books over the past 50 years – I explored this by by tapping into new book search capabilites from Google Labs.

Also, I spotted a post on Drew B’s blog yesterday about an article in the Economist.  The article casts a dim light on the PR field.  According to Drew:

The future of PR, according to The Economist (it’s not pretty): “Ever since [the early 1900’s] public-relations officers have been locked in an antagonistic, symbiotic relationship with journalists, with mutual contempt tempered by mutual dependency.” – The Economist, December 2010 It’s tough reading this article in the Economist. Try sifting through the comments to see what other readers think about the article. It’s not pretty.

I tweeted this and Judy Gombita, who blogs at PR Conversations, was kind enough to point out the PRSA response: Merely Image Men? Hardly, which starts out:

For the lay person reading this week’s Economist article about historical shifts in public relations, derisively titled, “Rise of the image men,” it would appear that public relations is viewed as the selfish younger brother or sister of advertising and marketing, desperately grasping at the glory and profits those industries have long enjoyed.

Fortunately, for the well-informed, The Economist’s pessimistic assessment couldn’t be further from the truth. Reality tells us that the profession is far more sophisticated, and delivers considerably more value, than it is often given credit for.

Thanks Judy, and PRSA: the good fight continues.

Posted in Current Affairs, PR | 2 Comments

In PR, Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect

Posted on December 21, 2010 by rgeller

The PR Conversations blog had a nice post, Facing Up to the PR Challenge, about a skills shortage in the field, and what can and should be done about this. It emphasizes the importance of training, weighs the value of a degree in PR, and discusses how mid-career professionals who are entering PR from other fields can acquire the necessary skills.

The post resonated with me on a number of levels. I have done quite a bit of hiring in PR over the years. You sometimes see more resumes, sometimes fewer, but it always seems to be a challenge to find the really good candidates.  As the article says:

On the one hand, there is a belief that anyone can work in PR – but on the other, the industry has a shortage of those who have the…competencies that are the mark of an effective PR consultant… Ensuring quality of talent is essential if PR is to be institutionalised as a credible and valued senior management function, I believe…

[WPP’s Martin ] Sorrell contrasts the investment made by organisations in capital equipment with much lower spend on training and development of people. I believe this is … gross negligence on the part of the industry to pay lip service to maintaining the talent pool.

The post goes on to describe “deliberate practice (I added the bold font):”

In a Fortune Magazine article Geoffrey Colvin considered “what it takes to be great ” and concluded it isn’t about innate talent, but about hard work: The talent argument isn’t one simply in favour of specialist PR professionals, experience versus education or recruiting gifted individuals. Rather it is about personal and organisational commitment to continual improvement and ongoing adjustment to achieve maximum results.

“The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call “deliberate practice.” It’s activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one’s level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.”

Examples of “best practice” are frequently little more than case study examples from award programmes, which are self-selected and edited highlights. Learning is primarily “on the job”, often at the hands of those who do little more than pass on poor practices. And, as Sorrell indicates, organisations need to look at better strategies than recruitment for improving the quality and quantity of talent in PR. We should insist on creating the best communicators, the best managers and the best strategists within public relations – not simply poaching from elsewhere.

An excellent article, I encourage you to visit the link, read the full post, and for the industry to take note of and follow its advice.

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WikiLeaks takes a Page From PR

Posted on December 15, 2010 by rgeller

WikiLeaks has been much in the news, and I have blogged about it several times (see my most recent posts).

The subject is very polarizing – you have the anarchists such as the hackers (who are launching attacks on perceived enemies of the site) on one side, and many more in the middle or on the right who are opposed to WikiLeaks and its founder. 

I had drinks the other night with a couple of very liberal friends, and even they seemed uncomfortable about WikiLeaks.   On the other hand, as the New York Times reported, many Europeans wonder what all the fuss is about.

I just can't understand why WikiLeaks is put on a pedestal by many. Exactly what important principles are they championing? There's no good answer in my mind, unless you really believe that the US Government is inherently evil and needs to be exposed and harmed in the process.

Having said all that, the New York Times media critic David Carr had an excellent analysis in his article WikiLeaks Taps the Power of the Press earlier this week.

It charts the evolution of WikiLeaks from a user-edited site that just kind of lets it all hang out to one that has leveraged mainstream media to reach a wider audience. 

In reading the following passage, it made me think about PR:

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’s founder and guiding spirit, apparently began to understand that scarcity, not ubiquity, drives coverage of events. Instead of just pulling back the blankets for all to see, he began to limit the disclosures to those who would add value through presentation, editing and additional reporting. In a sense, Mr. Assange, a former programmer, leveraged the processing power of the news media to build a story and present it in comprehensible ways.

We can save for another day the debate about whether the news media should be a willing participant, or whether this is a good thing – let's just say for now that there is a lesson to be learned here about the enduring power of traditiional media and PR amidst the growth of social media.

 

 

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Leak Sites We’d Really Like to See

Posted on December 14, 2010 by rgeller

News broke yesterday about renegade Wiki Leakers’ (is that redundant?) plans to start a kinder, gentler leak site called OpenLeaks, with a stated mission to serve up leaks without a political agenda.

This led me to ask all kinds of questions. First, what would the tag line be? “Same great leaks, less filling?” And what is the market for agenda-free vs. agenda-heavy leaked info?

It also led me to wonder about the broader market for these types of sites. Let’s face it, the diplomatic cables thing was a headline grabber, but how many people actually read any of those cables? Or the news trove that preceded them?

I did (see my posts from last week). Except for that Borat bit, let me tell you, they were real snoozers.

I am always on the prowl for new business ideas, so I thought I’d throw out some ideas for consideration to try to answer this: what are some types of leak sites that people really want to see?

OpenTable Leaks

Combines the concept pioneered by OpenTable with Open Leaks: shares secretes of how to get a great table in a top restaurant in New York City at the last minute on a Saturday night.  Or, the site could offer info about the really disturbing stuff that happens behind-the-scenes at fancy restaurants – the things that do not survive the reality show editors’ cuts.

Embargo Leaks

This site will leak all tech news stories in advance, and once and for all put Michael Arrington over the edge regarding his pet peeve: broken news embargoes.

Golden Leaks

This website will features the sexual proclivities of the rich, famous and influential.

Ricky Leaks

This wiki will feature secrets of faded stars of the 80s and 90s, including Ricky Lake and Ricky Martin (whoops,too late)

Jobs Leaks

This site will trump existing Apple watching sites like Apple Insider and the Fake Steve Jobs blog by posting the personal correspondence of Steve Jobs (recall how he got into it with the journalism student who was brave or foolish enough to try personally reach out to Jobs via email).

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WikiLeak Cables Reveal a Diplomatic Borat Moment

Posted on December 8, 2010 by rgeller

My post yesterday about diplomatic cables and PR writing referenced a passage that quoted a Kazakhstan  Borat
ambassador.  A commenter speculated that Sacha Baron Cohen is incorporating this into his next movie – I responded that the New York Times article in question already included a passage about Borat.

Here it is:

The embassy in Kazakhstan met many of Mr. Hoagland’s standards for cable-writing, even before he became ambassador there. Cables about Kazakhstan’s high-living leaders are written in a satirical tone worthy of Borat, the fictional (and wild) Kazakh played in the movie by Sacha Baron Cohen.

One described Kazakhstan’s defense minister turning up drunk for a meeting with an American official, “slouching back in his chair and slurring all kinds of Russian participles.” He explained that he had just been at a cadet graduation reception, “toasting Kazakhstan’s newly-commissioned officers.”

The memo concluded: “Who was toasted more — the defense minister or the cadets — is a matter of pure speculation.”

Posted in Current Affairs | 1 Comment

Good PR and Diplomatic Cable Writing: Not so Different

Posted on December 7, 2010 by rgeller

People who read this blog might expect to see some dark humor here that relates to the title of the post and the WikiLeaks imbroglio.

Well, I think SNL did a pretty good job of that over the weekend,with their sendup of TMZ and Weekend Update segments on the topic (above), and I don’t think I could do better, although it is tempting to try.

No, this post is about something I take quite seriously: writing. An article in the New York Times yesterday shared writing tips about diplomatic cables that the reporter thought could apply equally well to cub reporters; similarly, I believe that the PR field can learn something from them as well.

Here, the topic is about writing in a way that is interesting and commands attention

Richard E. Hoagland, the ambassador to Kazakhstan, thinks good cable-writing is so essential that he has written a guide for junior diplomats, “Ambassador’s Cable Drafting Tips.” Many of the tips would be familiar to any cub reporter trying to get an editor to bite on a story.

“The trick is to catch readers’ attention,” he advises. “The first three to five words are all they will see in their electronic queue.”

His specific recommendations? Avoid flabby writing, citing as a typically egregious example any memo that starts: “ ‘The ambassador used the opportunity of the meeting to raise the issue of’…”

On the importance of telling a good story:

And work on storytelling: “Despite what some in Washington will tell you, there is nothing at all wrong with colorful writing, as long as it communicates something.” But he adds a caveat: “Cute writing is never acceptable — cute is for toddlers, not for professional diplomats.”

Mr. Hoagland, who accompanied Mrs. Clinton to meetings this week, declined to discuss the substance of the leaked cables. But he was happy to discuss style. As a general rule, he said he instructs staff members to think like journalists. “Not everything we churn out is great writing,” he said, “but we try to keep up the standards.”

Posted in In the News, PR | 5 Comments

Sham Wow and Your Next Tech PR/Marketing Campaign

Posted on December 6, 2010 by rgeller

What can tech marketers learn from infomercials?

Products such as Sham Wow and PedEgg that are sold via infomercials often serve as the punch line in jokes.  Yet, as it turns out, there is a quite a bit you can learn from infomercials, even if your company or clients are in enterprise, telecom, or other tech and B2B product areas.

Read my post on Social Fluency today to find out more.

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A Publicist’s Touch and Sinatra’s Career: The Power of Branding and a Strong Headline

Posted on December 3, 2010 by rgeller

I had been seeing and hearing a lot about Frank Sinatra recently, and while reading the NY Times this morning, it became clear why the news has been covering the legendary crooner. There is a new book out about Sinatra's early career, "Frank: The Voice," by James Kaplan, a book that New York Times writer Stephen Holden says is riveting in his review.

The first words of the review cover the story about how a few edits of the publicist's pen made all the difference in branding the singer and bringing him to wider fame and adoration. According to the article:

… the author pinpoints the moment in 1943 when the crooner's publicist, George B. Evans, came up with his defining sobriquet. Fourth billed at the Paramount Theater in New York… Sinatra's name was accompanied by a slogan: "The Voice that Has Thrilled Millions."

The creakiness and sexlessness of those words made Evans cringe. Certain he could come up with something better, Evans closed his eyes and and imagined what drove Sinatra's fans in bobby socks into a frenzy and suddenly realized he didn't have to add anything. "All he had to do was subtract. Frank was just… The Voice."

If "The voice" was later superseded by "the Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes," it was the only major nickname to focus on the indispensable ingredients of Sinatra's success… "The Voice" evokes the intangible, mystical alchemy of sound, technique and emotion that fused when the skinny young Sinatra murmured tender endearments into a microphone."

Posted in Books | 1 Comment