Category: General

Online communication is hard.

Information lives far longer online and it’s far harder to control. The number of distribution outlets is growing every day while time is being condensed.

This creates a far more complex and demanding environment for Public Relations regardless of your particular discipline or industry, but there are some benefits.

For example, while in the past, you might have had to wait decades for the inside track on how events unfolded, now it can be a matter of months or even minutes.

I’ve already covered the Peoplesoft-Oracle spat a few times on this blog.

It’s a facinating public struggle between two major software vendors with a lot of fighting in the court of public opinion.

I’m sure the inside story on both sides will provide interesting reading. (In fact, MarketSherpa already have Peoplesoft’s version of events available for a fee.) But you don’t have to wait for the book or the memoirs.

Just as former Peoplesoft CEO, Craig Conway is clearing out his desk and taking Bear for some extended walks, the saga continues in a Delaware courtroom as the two companies trade punches and internal e-mails.

CNET has an interesting story on the latest developments including Peoplesoft’s claims that Oracle was using the acquisition as FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) tool in sales situations. Meanwhile, Peoplesoft’s legal people are denying they leaked confidential information for “Public Relations” purposes…

“The concept of FUD enjoys a venerable history in the computing field. According to The Jargon File, an online dictionary of hacker slang, Gene Amdahl used the term as an attack on IBM after he left in the early ’70s to found his own company: “FUD is the fear, uncertainty and doubt that IBM salespeople instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering (Amdahl) products.””

To further illustrate why I don’t think John’s pitch for the Marketing Playbook (see below) was too bad, let me compare it with a pitch I got from the Viral+Buzz Marketing Association.

Now this is an association concerned with VIRAL MARKETING!

Their PR person (I’m not naming and shaming at this point) came up with this fantastic pitch:

Tom:

I just wanted to make you aware of a press release that just came out.
It is a press release that announces the following:

Then they inserted the first paragraph of the press release and….. wait for it… attached the press release as a Word document…

Now does the class remember what Tom wrote about Word documents last week? Hands up…

Yes, Word documents are the spawn of Satan because they contain hidden mark-ups. (See here).

Well the first thing I did with this press release was check the hidden corrections and BINGO! all the revisions are included in the press release.

Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a screenshot….

I could share more of the changes with you, but I think this illustrates my point.

This is fairly negligent pitching.  Why? Well:

1. The PR person didn’t do ANY research into what I cover here
2. There’s was no personalization except the word “Tom:”
3. There was no pitch…. just the first para of the press release
4. Word attachments…

I could go on but I haven’t enough time, energy or the inclination…. and I’m sure they won’t see it…

John Zagula and Rich Tong are ex-Microsoft marketers behind the Marketing Playbook blog which is a useful resource for anyone with an interest in marketing – which should be everyone in Public Relations :-).

They’re launching a new book this month called, funnily enough The Marketing Playbook. The book offers five marketing “plays” and draws heavily from their experience in Microsoft – no bad thing given Microsoft’s marketing success.

I’ve only read over a draft so I can’t in all honesty give it a glowing review but the pieces I read were interesting and tied back into actual marketing campaign examples – which I’m a big fan of.

John obviously pitched a lot of bloggers with the book and a few bloggers took umbrage with it.

I’m not one of those.  The pitch that I got was relatively personalized and was similar to the majority of pitches I get every day from people looking to promote something. The problem of course is that every blog author is different and to placate the potentially more “sensitive” bloggers it is important that you tie the pitch to something they’ve written about or are passionate about. 

Blog relations really isn’t that different to good media relations.  Know the title, know the journalists, understand their perspective and tailor your pitch to make it appropriate. Anyhow, I think some bloggers were a little harsh on John, but then maybe it’s because as a PR person you can sympathise!

Tekrati, the industry analyst news site, reports that research firm the451 is no longer accepting subscriptions from PR firms, marketing firms or clipping agencies:

“Adam Needles, vice president at The 451 Group, reveals that the firm has encountered too much difficulty in monitoring public relations, clipping service and marketing communications agency violations of its licensing terms and conditions. In short, the policy is a move to eliminate risks of agencies forwarding The 451 Group intellectual property to non-subscribing companies.”

You can see their point.  You don’t see clipping firms (in my experience) delivering Gartner, Forrester, META, IDC etc. reports in your clips so the451, which operates similar licensing policies, is only following suit.

Just found a new PR blog called The Bach Door written by Pete Shinbach.

Pete has an excellent posting on the perception that many PR people are dragging their feet adopting new technologies (as they always have).  He makes the valid point that when these media start delivering obvious benefits they will be adopted, just as Internet access, e-mail and fax were eventually widely adopted.  

“True, there are some agencies and specialists who have readily adopted new online services, like blogs, and are doing quite well using them to generate new business, create valuable client services and, ‘less we forget, ringing their own cash registers.  These folks don’t need convincing nor will they probably step out and publicly discuss their online services: services which give them very definite competitive advantages.  But for most PR specialists, such early adopting just isn’t their to-do list.  For them, it’s like they say in Missouri: show me.”

Footnote:

Thanks to the ever vigilant Constantin Basturea for the link.

Forget all the magazine stories and the pontificating blog entries you’ve read about blogging.  The real measure of the success, growth and adoption of blogs is revenue.

Blogs are already a useful tool – of that there is no doubt.  But if you want a real tangible measurement on whether blogs are “mainstream” then look at the advertising dollars they attract.

I think blog advertising is great, particularly if it allows blogs to continue to deliver great content.  Of course there’s probably only 1-3% of blogs that will ever make significant cash – and obviously this isn’t one of those!

As all marketers know, effective programs are tightly targeted and use a variety of tools from PR to advertising and direct marketing. Although it’s still very small, there are signs that advertisers are beginning to take notice and that’s a great development.

Of course while I believe blog advertising is something that should be welcomed, “blogvetorials” or the payment of cash in return for specific content is not something I agree with – or believe has a long-term future.

Kevin Dugan points to a story in the New York Daily News on the growth of advertising revenue targeted at blogs.

“In Blogads’ network of 500 sites, an ad costs as little as $25 a week on marginal blogs, to $300 on Sullivan’s site, to as much as $2,250 on DailyKos – all relatively inexpensive compared to a national magazine or network televison.”

 

 In the UK, PR firm Weber Shandwick and Media Trust, an organization that helps charities communicate with the media more effectively, have launched a competition for UK charities with a turnover of less than �2 million.  Charities are invited to submit entries with the three chosen charities being given three months worth of free PR support. A very worthwhile initiaitive and credit where it’s due.

 Neville Hobson has a great post on “podcasting” and it’s potential for employee communications.  In effect, “podcasting” is the delivery of speeches or talks or any audio content in mp3 format hosted on an Intranet or website.  Staff can then download the mp3 file and listen to it on their desktop or mp3 player. It sounds like an idea with a lot of applications inside and outside the organization.

 Richard Bailey explains the subtleties of press release writing.

 Colin McKay posts on the snafu surrounding the Toronto Film Festival, the attending “celebrities” or lack of them and the newspaper correction.  Interestingly, the New York Times picked up on the story..

 PR blogging veteran Phil Gomes is giving a talk on PR and Blogging to the Silicon Valley chapter of the PRSA later this month.

 Steve Rubel asks what happens when the mainstream media move 24/7, how will PR people cope?

 Inc. magazine covers business blogging.

 The New Zealand Herald has carried an article by Tim Marshall, president of the New Zealand Public Relations Institute, in response to a story the paper ran on how government PR spending was out of control…

“The figures in the article showed the number of people designated as public relations staff in Government departments and that the spending had increased by about 50 per cent over the past four years.

Is that out of control? How are we to judge? Are these Government PR people delivering value for money or not? How much should the Government be spending on PR? What are these PR people doing or trying to achieve?

Unfortunately, the article did not answer those questions or give evidence to support the allegation that extra PR resources are promoting the Government’s interests. The story took an apparently pre-determined view that increased PR spending was a bad thing.”

If ever there was a book about real-life Public Relations that I’d love to read, it would be an account of the PR efforts on both sides of the Peoplesoft-Oracle merger battle.

It has been a titantic struggle with a lot of memorable skirmishes in the media – a struggle Oracle look as though they’re winning. 

In yet another twist, Peoplesoft have just announced that the company’s CEO, Craig Conway has been removed and replaced by company founder David Duffield.

The Peoplesoft-Oracle snafu delivered many entertaining media battles including:

First, Craig Conway, CEO at Peoplesoft came out with this gem about the proposed takeover:

“It’s like me asking if I could buy your dog so I can go out back and shoot it.” [Bloomberg]

To which the ever-quotable Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison responded in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News:

“I think at one point, `Craigey’ thought I was going to shoot his dog,” Ellison said. “If Craigey and Bear were standing next to each other and I had one bullet, trust me, it wouldn’t be for the dog.”

Previous posts:

• PR Firefight – the enterprise software soap opera..
• The dog, the bullet and the media interview….

Colin McKay provides some pointers to when you should resign the account….

A 60 Minutes crew is sitting in their office – and you didn’t invite them.

You just can’t get over the internal motivational video – the CFO and CMO covering Whitesnake’s “Here I go again.”

Whenever you use the word “media,” the aged founder starts chattering about Marshall McLuhan and acid.

The client asks “Can you get us PR but also keep us way under the radar? Thanks.”

A new Internet research report contradicts a popular Internet theory that the media is becoming less influential. According to the report the media remains one of the most reliable sources of online information for consumers everywhere.

That’s one finding in a fantastic new report from the University of Southern California:

 “The Digital Future Report: Surveying the Digital Future” (PDF)

Its the fourth year the report, which includes interviews with 2,000 households on their use of the Internet, has been published and it makes for fascinating reading.

They found that 74.4% of respondents say that information on established media Web sites is reliable and accurate.

Interestingly, the survey also found that the number of users who believe that overall information on the Internet is reliable and accurate has declined. 40% of users believe that only half the information on the Internet is reliable.

The report includes a wealth of relevant statistics on Internet usage and behavior. It estimates that 70.2% of Americans now use e-mail and 62.3% of those users check e-mail at least twice a day.

This is a strongly recommended download!

Footnote:

• Thanks to MarketingSherpa for the link.
• The report was supported by the foundation and corporate partners of the USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future. They deserve a mention! Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, National Cancer Institute, SBC, Sony, Time Warner Companies and Verizon.