Month: July 2004

You may have noticed there hasn’t been a whole lot of new content and thinking here this week.  Well I’m on the road and time has been in short supply.

To be honest with all that’s going on over at the Global PR Blog Week, I’m not sure there’s much need or demand for anymore PR content this week!

Highlights of day three include:

• Elizabeth Albrycht on the tools you can use to build an online community.
• Octavio Rojas on the potential of blogs in Spanish-speaking countries.(Spanish version)
• Alice Marshall on how to best pitch small business stories. (Alice also conducts an online interview with Bradley Peniston, Editor of Defense News.)
• Bernie Goldbach on the steps involved in online promotion and how to best use and run your blog..
• Robb Hecht on how PR can help companies manage conversations with their customers
• Angelo Fernando explores the art of telling “brand” stories and asks should CEO’s blog.
• Mike Manuel looks at online measurement.
• Don Crowther on the 5 stupidest PR tactics.
• Anthony Parcero tackles interactive PR strategies.
• Jim Horton looks at the potential and pitfalls of blogging in a crisis.

Philip Young will be contributing a piece on PR Ethics this Friday.  He is looking for practitioners to participate in his online survey.  You can find it here.

Finally Jay Rosen who was interviewed by Steve Rubel as part of Global PR Blog Week on Monday,  has been doing some thinking on PR.

He ponders whether PR people are beginning to forget about control and instead engage with their audiences.

“I’m not sure what to make of this. But with more and more people in PR talking about the need for transparency and genuine public interaction, and asking whether “spin” has seen its day, it is at least possible that a debate could break out– a split in the ranks on what is wise, responsible, effective and shrewd practice in a time of changing media platforms, vanishing knowledge monopolies, and shifting expectations. It would be natural for PR pros who blog to be out front on this.”

Personally I think the advent of the Internet and tools like e-mail and weblogs have effectively removed the illusion of control that many in our profession may have held.

PR firm Peppercom [Flash Warning!] have announced a new proprietary measurement tool for PR and it can also be used to measure sales and marketing campaigns according to MediaMap’s blog.

So two issues.  First of all Peppercom’s site is a classic example of why Flash navigation is the spawn of Satan (and yes they are the latest addition to the Flash Hall of Shame).

Secondly they have no details about the measurement tool on their site….

PS: You have to love the clicking noise effects on the site.

 

In case you thought that the Global PR Blog Week was going to be a cosy love in, there’s actually some great debate to match the fantastic content.

• Trevor Cook interviews Microsoft’s uber blogger Robert Scoble.
• Hans Kullin offers some sound advice on launching a blog for a services organization.
• Philip Young ponders whether ethics is good business.
• Don Crowther on the intersection of blogs and search engines.
• John Mudd looks at how blogs can contribute to the bottom line.
• Trudy Schuett on blogs for non-profit organizations.
• Roland Tanglao presents an argument for why PR is dead.
• John Cass wonders if Microsoft is in danger from blogs.
• Wayne Hulbert looks at blogs as a website promotional tool.
• Anita Campbell covers using blogs to spot trends.
• Evelyn Rodriguez examines blogs and thought leadership.
• Dave Austin offers a blog 101.

Is that enough content for you?

Meanwhile, Jim Horton has raised some hackles with his post today that  blogs maybe over blown:

“There is too much enthusiasm for what blogging can do. It is like discovering a new world and dreaming of what the land can be before one finds it has poisonous snakes and deadly spiders.”

Trudy Schuett takes Jim to task for his comments: 

“The only thing I can’t get my head around from your post is why you think
all these bloggers need an editor. They’re not all for general public
consumption, if you didn’t know that. (There is no insult intended here; I
just figure maybe you don’t have the whole picture yet.) Even on the
professional level, who is to know if the editor knows any better than the
writer?”

Meanwhile Ross Mayfield, sitting in his greenhouse, throws a stone at the PR profession:

“As a CEO, I have grown to distrust outsourcing PR beyond coordination, especially when we can extend our reach by ourselves authentically and the strategy is core. Oursource your PR and you may find they jump ship to share your ideas with competitors the very next day. A discussion on transparency needs to be complimented by one on ethics. If both are not addressed, sunshine is the best disinfectant and disintermediation is inevitable.”

Sigh… do you know I just don’t have the energy to waste on that post….

Luckily some very able-minded PR bodies try to put Ross back on the straight and narrow. Thank goodness.

The week is producing some great content, kudos to everyone who has contributed so far and to the architects of the event, Trevor and Constantin.

MarketingSherpa has a piece on the differences between the technology trade press in Canada.

“Canadians tend to be nicer,” says Susan Verrecchia, President & Founder Verrecchia Group Communications, a technology PR and marketing firm based in Montreal. “It’s in their nature. American journalists can be curt if you catch them at a bad time.”

Free access times out on July 19, 2004 (you’ve seven days!)

Generalizations abound. Ahem.

Well as you will no doubt already know, Global PR Blog Week 1.0 has kicked off in great style with loads of fantastic PR content.

Never let it be said there isn’t good PR content online.

Today’s articles focus on PR and Participatory Journalism and they include:

Trevor Cook on “Re-thinking PR”

Ryan May on “Defining Participatory Journalism”

Steve Rubel interviews Jay Rosen on why “PR Needs to Stand for Real Transparency”

Robb Hecht on “The Great Global Conversation”

Richard Bailey thinks we should “Glance Backward to Move Forward”

Keep checking out the Global PR Blog Week 1.0 site as new content is added regularly through the day…

The torrent of blog related content recently has relegated my beloved RSS to the sidelines (for the moment).

However, Keith O’Brien over at PR Week has penned a fantastic article on RSS and PR.

While I’m not sure that RSS will solve overflowing inboxes, it can definetely help practitioners to monitor media sources (including blogs and competitors) and it does provide an innovative and cost-effective means of delivering news (and maybe creating conversations) to your audiences.

I think Keith’s closing paragraph is a great summary of not only the impact of RSS but of any new technology including blogs:

“From an end-user perspective, RSS fits unobtrusively into the mix of information services available. As with all advancements, public relations professionals need to stay abreast of changes, embrace them, and use them to their benefit. While the technology may be new, the story is not.”

We shouldn’t lose the run of ourselves.  We should instead by pragmatic. Existing PR skills are more relevant today than ever before.  New technologies should be trialled, but only those that directly contribute to your objectives should be embraced. There is no point doing something simply because it’s the new new thing.  Trial it, measure it and if it works use it.  If it doesn’t work then try it at a later date.

RSS may not be for everyone at this point but it works for my employer.  Try it and you might find it’ll work for yours.

Footnote:

I should issue the disclaimer that Cape Clear does get a small mention in the PR Week article.

John Tawadros writes in MediaPost’s SeachInsider that traditional advertising agencies hate Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

He makes the following points:

1. Achieving profitability in managing clients’ paid search advertising is extremely difficult.

2. A shortage of skilled SEM practitioners.

3. Even “poaching” experts cannot produce superior results

4. SEM is so complex it requires singular focus.

5. SEM requires a commitment to research.

Of course John isn’t exactly an objective observer.

He’s a VP at a SEM firm, iProspect and while he makes good points, I don’t believe that SEM is completely the remit of “SEM experts”.  There’s a lot that PR folks can do to better understand search engines and how to improve rankings, utilize tools like Google Adwords etc.

You can read his arguments in more detail here.

For the past six months I’ve been successfully using Qurb to reduce my spam headache and it’s worked really well.

In effect, Qurb scans your e-mail folders and your address book for e-mail addresses.  Then any e-mail with a new e-mail address is automatically moved to the “Qurb” folder where you can view the e-mails later and approve any legitimate e-mails.  Those e-mails are allowed to remain in your inbox from that point on. It does a great job of keeping your inbox clear.

Since I last installed Qurb, at the beginning of June, it has quaratined 18,000 e-mails, which I am sure you’ll agree is quite a few!

Unfortunately as with all things spam, time is the greatest enemy.  Over the past few weeks I’ve seen an explosion in the volume of spam being sent using legitimate e-mail addresses and therefore bypassing Qurb into my inbox….

As I’ve said before, the only solution to spam is hunting down the perpetrators.

For PR practitioners in the technology world, industry analysts are a vital audience. 

These firms continue to directly guide and influence corporate IT purchases, drive market trands and help end-users make sense of the ever changing technology world – where if pure marketing was to be believed, every firm solves every problem.

As a result, successful analyst relations (AR) is key to the success of any technology firm.

I wrote previously about Forrester’s new initiative the  ARM Council.  It aims to provide a network for analyst relations staff at subscribing vendors and it’s a fantastic program which has real benefits for the vendor.  It provides a forum for practitioners to share ideas and request advice and guidance on any problems they are encountering in the analyst arena.

The ARM council also organizes conference calls where Forrester analysts and AR folks can come together to discuss issues and learn more about how each other works.

I attended one of the sessions last week and it was excellent.  Three Forrester analysts outlined their preferences, highlighted areas to watch out for and took questions from the AR people on the call. This kind of first hand interaction, from a marketing perspective, is hugely beneficial for both parties.

The big take away from the session is that every analyst is different, even within the same firm.  Some prefer PowerPoints, some prefer whiteboard sessions, some like e-mailed updates, some will use anonymous customer references. In short, you need to understand each analyst’s specific preferences and make sure you cater for them.

In the aftermath of the session, I suggested to the council specialist that it might be useful to convene a session without any analysts present, so that the vendor representatives could discuss AR-related issues away from the analysts!

One of the major issues facing AR is the hired gun analyst. These are firms who accept payment to promote vendors regardless of their merits.  Just like our unethical PR brethren, these firms are a tiny minority of the analyst community, but they are there.

One of these firms recently told me that unless we paid them a retainer ($20K minimum) that they would not accept briefings from us and that under no circumstances would they discuss our company or products with the media, partners or customers. Their reason for this was, if we’re not briefing them, they couldn’t possibly make and educated analysis!!! Huh? So if we pay you, then you’ll say we’re wonderful regardless?

Of course the problem here is that the firm in question are fantastic at PR.  They are regularly quoted and regularly polled for their opinions by the media.  Where analysts at the larger firms are focused on client enquiries, these rogus firms spend their time pitching to the media.

This isn’t a new phenomenon.  I remember the same issues arising back in the mid-nineties. It’s also prevalent across technology sectors and in my opinion it is worrying.

It’s clear that the media don’t know that these “analysts” are about as independent as the typical staff member of a vendor’s marketing team. After all, at least a vendor’s marketing team has a clear agenda – these analysts don’t.

My one small contribution in combating this deception is that I do make my feelings on their practices clear to journalists with whom I have a relationship.  However, to the rest of the market they are “experts”.

Fighting this deception, which reflects badly on the analyst community as a whole, would be a very worthwhile result from any gathering of PR practitioners. In fact, the analyst community should be looking to address this practice themselves….

Has anyone noticed the growing number of spam messages with “PR” or “Press Release” in the subject line?

And of course these are *real* spam messages for pills, potions and blind dates.