Category: General

I am delighted to report that a review of the Flash Hall of PR Shame has found a graduate who has moved away from the dark side.

Congratulations to Hill and Knowlton who have banished their Flash Intro.

Keep those nominations coming…

 Kevin Dugan takes Forbes to task on their ignorance of RSS.

 Jeremy Pepper writes in favor of Blogservations and fair play to him.

 Steve Rubel shares the results of a PR Week online poll covering the topic of whether you should allow comments on a corporate blog. [30% allow them, 16% keep relevant comments, 14% review all comments, Require e-mail from posters 33% and Don’t allow comments 5%]

 Neville Hobson is a big fan of Ned Lundquist’s JOTW which was recently features in the WSJ. You can sign up for JOTW here.

 Mike Manuel has a tabular comparison of blogs and message boards.

 Shel Holtz tackles the thorny subject of employee communications: “I would suggest that the internal communications profession needs to take a hard look at itself and figure out how to turn this situation around, lest management find someone else who can produce the results they need.”

  The Toronto Free Press questions PR firms’ involvement in some recent political events.  It claims that PR firms have been involved in some questionable practices *which* if true are outrageous.  However, the article itself has little or no facts and the only involvement of the accused firms is a third party quote pulled from a French magazine.  It’s hardly balanced, factual journalism…

Although the subject matter�which reinforces some less attractive sterotypes about our business�may not be to everyone’s taste, a new book is now available with a PR/Spin Doctor/Flack type individual as the central hero (anti-hero).

The storyline of “Slick” concerns our hero’s [A rising star in the world of public relations, Scott is a master at manipulating the news, especially when the news isn’t good for his clients. To journalists, he’s the dark prince of deception. To others, he’s merely the product of an amoral corporate culture. Not that their opinions matter to Scott, who shelved his ego years ago. It’s the only way to stay sane in a business that gets crazier by the day.] efforts at saving an actress’ reputation.

Why am I promoting the book here? Well it is PR-related�for better or worse�and its author Daniel Price did a nice PR pitch on me (and I’m sure many of the other PR bloggers).

Why was it good?

• It was personalized
• It was humourous
• It was very honest
• It was creative

So if we’re going to complain about bad blog pitches we should praise the good ones.  Well done Daniel and best of luch with the pitch. The book sounds like a perfect present for Lizzie.

Here is a link to the opening pages of the novel.

I have to admit that I am in two minds about this post.

Let me explain.

Roland Tanglao has posted an outline of his presentation to communications agency Reputations.

It’s a very good introduction to blogging with lots of resources. My problem is with the presentation’s title:

PR is dead & Blogging Killed it

You see, the presentation outline doesn’t map to that theme at all. There’s no explanation or demonstration as to why or how blogging is “killing” PR.  The closest is this quote:

“Provocative and perhaps hyperbole and not going to happen overnight but “don’t overestimate the impact of blogging in the short term and underestimate it in the long term”

You see this kind of hype is damaging for blogs. 

Blogs are simply a tool.  That’s it folks. A tool. 

That’s not to say that blogs are not important.  They are.  Blogs help to build conversations and promote new types of communication.  This is all good.  But to say blogs will kill, damage, hurt or blow rasberries at PR is just rubbish.

Blogs will sit alongside a whole host of traditional and emerging marketing practices from newsletter sponsorship to media tours to advertising and search optimization.

PR has challenges in understanding the emerging new forms of communication, but don’t be distracted by the hyperbole. Focus on understanding how these new tools can help your clients. The rest will follow.

Jim Horton has a great post on the folly of trying to link blog postings with advertising dollars.

Blogversations have launched an initiative where they will effectively act as an agent between advertisers and bloggers. 

The business plan is as follows: Advertisers will suggest topics to blog on and then bloggers will either accept or reject the opportunity to blog on that particular topic – but according to Blogservations it’s not an advertorial…. huh?

“Evil is a shortsighted strategy. If bloggers sell out, they lose readers; if they lose readers, we lose sponsors. The pie shrinks for everyone. That’s why we don’t want bloggers to sell out. If you’re a blogger in our network, you always retain control over your blog; you’re always free to reject any proposed discussion or sponsorship which you’re not comfortable with. The power stays in your hands.”

If anyone know the folks over at Blogservations they should point them at the “wonderful” new book on “PR without BS”.

Of course this is advertorial. What is advertorial? Sponsor-supported content. This is no different. I doubt any blogger with an audience would dare to participate in this rubbish. Unless of course they want to lose their audience.

The good news is that this is doomed to fail. PR people often have a horrendous time trying to legitimately reach out to bloggers. How do you think those same bloggers will react to the idea of being paid by an advertiser to write on a pre-specified topic?

Nah…

 

The Good..

Following on from the positive news from the Council of Public Relations on billings for the first quarter of this year, WPP the large marketing conglomerate has announced that the revenue of its PR firms, which include Burson Marsteller, Ogilvy PR and Cohn & Wolfe, have risen 7.3% in the first six months of the year.

The Bad…

A new PR book is out titled “PR Without BS: The Practical Handbook of Ethical Public Relations”. So what angle did the author and publishers decide for the launch press release?

“Public Relations and Honesty Can Co-Exist, Says New Book”

Gee, I must buy the book to find out. Looks like they forgot to write the press release “without BS”.

The Smelly…

If you thought the PR profession had image problems, what about PR job applicants? UK PR recruitment specialist, VMA Group has published the results of a survey of PR employers and the findings were somewhat alarming.  When asked for their top issues with PR job applicants they listed: farting, smelling of alcohol, yawning, biting finger nails, taking shoes off and excessive scratching and sniffing as common issues… sounds like every PR practitioner I ever knew… More at HR Gateway.

I treat broad industry research the same whether it’s positive or negative

The latest PR industry research from the Council of Public Relations found that there was a 13% rise in agency fees in Q1 of this year.

“It’s evident we’ve seen a dramatic increase in our business during the last six months,” said Michael Miller, president of Brown Miller Communications Inc. in Martinez. His agency provides public relations for agriculture, nonprofits, foundations and government.

Now this is good news, but I wouldn’t go putting the champagne on ice just yet. Let’s not forget that at the beginning of the year it was all doom and gloom.

Things are getting better, but let’s take it one step at a time. 

Footnote:

Thanks to Ben Silverman for the link.

I have always believed that the PR person shouldn’t really become the story.  At the very least you should try and avoid it.

Unfortunately Lizzie Grubman (and many others) doesn’t agree.

Many of you will remember Lizzie as the PR person who mowed down some people who were quietly minding their business while queuing outside a club in the Hamptons, before driving off.

The incident generated a lot of negative publicity, funny that.

Now it’s emerged that Lizzie’s latest step on the road to redemption is a starring role in a new MTV reality series “PoweR Girls”.

Oh my lord. An AbFab reality series.

It’s a strange strategy she’s taken – though no doubt it’ll be a big success. Unfortunately it’s bound to reinforce the usual sterotypes about working in PR. Which is fine if you’re closer to Lizzie’s world, but looks foreign to poor old business-to-business grunts sitting in the windowless office in the basement.

Footnote:

Some previous posts on Lizzie:

• Jeremy Pepper reported on this back in February of this year.
• Lizzie’s NY PR course.
• A review of Lizzie’s NY PR course.
• Fire Dept. reenactment of Lizzie’s “incident” goes very wrong.
• Lizzie talking to ABC.
• Lizzie’s indictment.
• The inevitable parody site.

 

I’ve had a flood of nominations for the Flash Hall of Shame.

After much deliberation, I’m delighted to announce three new inductees today:

• i2i Creative
• The Ruth Group
• MWW Group

Footnote:

Thanks to David, Jeremy and Darren.

I’ve had received two “Gorilla Marketing” award nominations for Real Networks.

Both nominations centered around the Freedom of Music Choice campaign and in particular the online petition “Hey Apple Don’t Break My iPod”

After a lot of consideration I’ve decided against it.

Although the petition should have made full disclosure that it was created by Real Networks, it does provide a link to the Freedom of  Music Choice website – which is clearly driven by Real Networks.

The campaign has generated a lot of ink, though personally it rings a little hollow.