Category: General

• Jeremy Pepper‘s latest PR Face2Face interview is with Clive Armitage, head honcho over at Bite [website] and home of the Bite blog.

I know Clive from way back in the mists of time when I was a wet-behind-the-ears PR intern. We both worked at Text 100 before he went of to discover fame and fortune with Bite. It’s a great interview with some interesting observations.

Jeremy also has an excellent post on the art and science of PR team building and he reports on John Battelle‘s keynote at the OMMA West Conference.

• Ken Kerrigan has a thoughful post on the importance of effective internal communications.
• Keith Jackson writes on a report by Ronald Hanser of Pinnacle Worldwide on a survey of future PR trends.
• Richard Edelman believes that PR is finally getting some respect…
• I’ve been meaning to link to the New Communications blogzine for ages. It’s mission is to:
  New Communications Blogzine is a bi-monthly online publication is dedicated to exploring new communications tools, technologies and emerging modes of communication, (including blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, search marketing, etc.), the growing phenomena of participatory communications and their effect on traditional media, professional communications, business, politics and society at large.
  
  Issue 8 is just out and is focussing on blogging and women. It’s definetely worth a read and there’s some great stuff in the back issues.
• It looks like the 49’ers video snafu is set to run….
• An interesting profile of Pat Corfman who looks after PR and Marketing at Michigan’s Bishop Airport.

• The latest installment of Shel and Neville’s ‘For Immediate Release’ podcast (#38) is now online.
• The former Fleishman-Hillard vice president at the center of the ongoing row with the City of Los Angeles has been charged. He’s pleaded not guilty and claims he’s been made a scapegoat.
• Interesting bit of positive self-publicity for Ketchum on their 300-strong alumni meeting in Pittsburgh.
• UK PR impressario Max Clifford has extended his client roster. He’s just been retained to manage the publicity for a British man who is to be freed after eighteen years on death row in Ohio.
• Todd Defren bemoans the analyst relations circuit and recommends that people think about the audience they’re trying to reach rather than just going through the motions. He’s right, however the reality is that if your client is selling enterprise software, the analysts remain a major influence on the buying process (and the media).

It’s often said that you shouldn’t put anything in an e-mail that you wouldn’t like being read in a court of law or published on the front page of a newspaper. It would appear that the same applies to internal training videos. You have probably by now read, and possibly seen, the San Francisco 49’ers contentious media training video.

That introduction is a feeble attempt on my behalf to create a segue to the rest of this post which is completely off-topic.

PR is clearly becoming a more important element of professional sport. It’s importance isn’t just for a specific team or player, but good and bad PR reflects the sport as a whole.

This weekend the British & Irish Lions kick-off their much anticipated tour of New Zealand. The Lions are a rugby team (for the unitiated rugby has similarities with American Football but doesn’t have all the advertising breaks or the safety equipment) drawn from the best players from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Every four years, since 1888, these players come together to play a series of matches against New Zealand, Australia or South Africa.

This year’s tour is to the home of world rugby, Andy Lark’s beloved New Zealand.

Rugby only turned professional (officially) twelve years ago and the fear was that traditions such as the Lions would be lost in a climate of professionalism. What’s happened is the opposite, the Lions tour has turned into a massive sporting and commerical event. For example, the Lions jersey is now globally the second best selling replica jersey for Addidas (only second to the Real Madrid soccer team).

They are taking their PR seriously as well. After a number of major faux-pas on the last tour to Australia four years ago, they have brought in arguably one of the best known PR people in Europe, none other than Tony Blair’s beloved Alastair Campbell.

The Lions are a great example of nations putting their differences aside to create a team that mixes different nationalities for a common cause. They travel more in hope than expectation but in the words of former English captain John Pullin:

“We may not be very good, but at least we turn up.”

C’mon the Lions…

• You’ve most probably already seen this by now, however Yahoo has released their blog guidelines [PDF][Thanks to Andy Lark]
• Jim Horton points to an article in Editor and Publisher that looks at how publishers could incorporate a citizen editor into the newsroom.
  

  “What exactly is a “citizen editor”? “In a lot of ways, it’s unlike any other job in the newsroom,” says Rich Gordon, chair of Newspapers and New Media at Northwestern University’s Medill School and the faculty advisor for GoSkokie.com, an experimental student-run citizen-journalism website set up to serve the city of Skokie, Ill. “The job isn’t to find stuff out and package it; it’s to solicit other people to provide information and encourage interactivity among your [online] users.””

• David Parmet highlights the increasing overlap between journalism and blogging. Jeremy Wagstaff was having problems reviewing a Tablet PC and posted them on his blog. Inevitably Robert Scoble comes to the rescue.

Jeremy reviewed his initial post after reading Steve Rubel‘s take.

[Of course it should be pointed out that while all this cross-posting is going on, some poor PR person is probably getting caned for following standard review processes….]

Jeremy also provides links to some interesting PR-related posts:

Do’s and Don’ts of dealing with media online

PR Pitches and the foibles of memory

How (Not) to Pitch a Blogger

Another PR Mis-step

• If you, like me, still hold a fascination for the excesses of the Dot Bomb era then Deborah Branscum has the perfect link for you. The Business Plan Archive is building a repositiory of the business plans of failed start-ups from the period. It’s fantastic!
• Meanwhile John Byrne, Editor of Fast Company has come out shooting after reports on the possible demise of the magazine.
• The Online Journalism Review‘s Mark Glaser has written a very good article on how companies are manipulating search engine rankings. [Thanks to BL Ochman for the link.]

• Jeremy Pepper has published an interview with Harris Diamond, CEO of Weber Shandwick.
  

  “I’m chair of the Council of PR Firms, and I wouldn’t say public relations is under fire. There have been one or two issues that have been raised. The Annenberg Study that has just been released shows that the relationship with the C-level suite for public relations is better than it has ever been.

  As a business, public relations is in very good shape, it is continuing to grow, and we will see more opportunities.

  There are issues, but these are no different than other issues that have come up. I don’t buy into it that there are more problems today than before. There are always spin doctor issues, issues about how PR works – it’s only natural. It’s similar with advertising and other marketing practices. Public relations is in the best shape it’s been in since 2001.”

• Kerry at the McClenahan Bruer blog highlights a press release issued by American Business Media re-affirming the publishers’ commitment to the division of editorial and advertising. They deserve great credit for coming out at this point.

The recent moves by Morgan Stanley and BP make me sick. They are a last desperate attempt at controlling the media. How do they fit their heavy-handed advertorial policies with their Corporate Social Responsibility objectives? I’m sure both organizations have a 300 page manual on how they work with the community – unfortunately these attempts at manipulating the media through advertising dollars show exactly just how committed these institutions are to society.

• Richard Bailey has some very insightful analysis on why PR students and new practitioners should and shouldn’t blog. It’s a recommended read for anyone considering getting a blog up and running.

• Off topic: Here’s a research report that was published ten years ago, that in my opinion, never got the publicity it deserved. It analyses one of the most oft-used conversational show stoppers of all time. Comparing Apple and Oranges. [Thanks to Nick Gall for the link]

Organizing analyst meetings is always a very enjoyable exercise. An exercise in patience, planning, faux-surprise and overlapping logisitics.

Recently I had two interesting (paraphrased) responses from two un-named research firms (it goes without saying the communication was from sales reps):

• 1) Sorry you can’t meet with Analyst X because according to our records you briefed him/her eleven months ago and as you are aware non-clients can only brief a analyst once in any given twelve month period.
• 2) Thanks for getting in touch. Unfortunately we never made any progress in working together and our analysts have to keep a balance between client and non-client work. Why don’t you see if there’s an opportunity for us to do some business and come back to me.

We all have to make a living and I have to say (once again) that in my experience, the vast majority of research firms are above board and interested in finding out what’s happening in the market. But I have to ask the question: Are the analysts at these firms as knowedgeable as they should be (from their clients’ perspective) on firstly new technologies and products and secondly on how those products are being used in practice?

Steve Rubel‘s post regarding Google’s use of Blogger to run their press center reminded me that I meant to put together a short post on our experiences using blog software on the corporate website.

Late last year we decided to re-engineer the Cape Clear News & Events section using a blogging platform.

The main reason for moving to a blog was that we didn’t already use a content management system and as a result any press releases, events, awards etc. had to be posted manually.

In addition, blog software gives you a lot of flexibility in terms of publishing content and autogenerating that content elsewhere in the site.  Finally it automatically generates RSS feeds which can be offered to visitors to the site.

The new section was launched in January and over the past four months it has been working without any major problems. Of course it doesn’t look like a blog to the unitiated but as you navigate around the different sections there are some hints.

The major lessons we have learned are:

1) You need to find specific expertise in the design and implementation stage.  We used Moveable Type as our web content team had the expertise which made the process releatively straightforward. But there’s a lot of testing required, particularly in terms of how posts will look, formatting issues etc.

2) One of the biggest problems is migrating the content.  It can be quite labor intensive moving a lot of content into the new system.  An alternative is to archive previous content on the web server, but we were committed to migrating everything to Moveable Type – that took time.

3) Obviously if you are not already offering visitors to your site RSS feeds then blog software gives you an immediate solution.  We’ve been offering feeds for a long time (we produce them manually) and we aren’t using the blog to auto-generate them at this point as we’re investigating alternative ways to deliver RSS feeds that could also provide us with better measurement such as Nooked.

4) Training for the unitiated is essential.  The Moveable Type system is fairly straightforward but it’s useful to provide users a little training to help people understand basic HTML and how the various publishing options work.

5) The collaborative nature of the blog platform means that you may have a host of different people posting content.  To minimize any potential problems I’d recommend you put in place clear, agreed procedures for publishing content.

The project has already been a major success.  It’s provided us with additional flexibility and reduced the time involved in getting content online.

We’re currently looking at how Moveable Type can be used in other areas of the site. If you want any more information, let me know.

Memorial day in the US and Spring Holiday in the UK which will mean a quieter day than usual in the blog cloud…

 Tim Jackson is a student of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in the UK.  As part of his coursework he is conducting an online study exploring blogging and public relations. The deadline for the survey is June 03, 2005. Why not participate by clicking here – it only takes a couple of minutes.

 Our pre-eminent Australian PR blogger, Trevor Cook, of Corporate Engagement PR blog fame, has launched a new site: ‘Blogging and Podcasting in Australia‘ with loads of related stories, opinions, links and content. 

 David Parmet points to an interesting opinion piece by Jonathan Carson, CEO of Buzz Metrics on why PR agencies should own word of mouth iniatives. He’s right on two fronts.  Firstly that word-of-mouth should be a key element of Public relations, and secondly that PR is not taking ownership of these emerging disciplines…..

 

 

 Speaking of word of mouth, Hans Kullin makes a very good point on the potential of blogs to highlight poor customer service. 

 

 Don Crowther looks at that most annoying element of Public Relations… dealing with prima donnas.

 

 The MS&L blog has details on their (in conjunction PR Week) 2005 Marketing Management Survey. Among the findings are that:

• PR has made enormous strides “in dealing with audience fragmentation using such tools as influencers, the web, and in particular, blogs.”
• Marketers continue to look at alternatives to traditional advertising, and PR is taking a bigger role in helping companies find those alternatives — quickly.

I have to say that those findings surprise me… 

 

You can download the report (PDF) here.

 

 Stuart Bruce points to an article in the UK Observer newspaper by John Naughton that takes a (thankfully) measured look at the intersection of blogging and journalism without the usual claptrap about blogs ending the world as we know it.

 

“Blogging won’t wipe out journalism, for the simple reason that journalism requires skills and resources that bloggers will never have. But it will improve the practice of our trade. I don’t expect that Pulitzer-winning Dave will like this prospect much. But he’ll just have to get used to it.”

 The latest installment of Bacon’s Expert PR newsletter in on-line with articles on presentations, writing skills and a variety of magazine profiles.

 The latest issue of RLM PR‘s Full Frontal Report newsletter is out.

Note:

I get sent e-mail newsletters which aren’t posted online or worse the online archive is a couple of months behind the current issue.  If you’re hoping that a blogger or other outlet will pick-up on one of your stories you must post it online (for the love of Jebus).

 The Council of PR Firms has released some upbeat research on the state of the industry.

 Andrew Smith looks at the problems around the time honored tradition of time sheet PR, while Tim Dyson suggests some possible alternative approaches, based on value and results.

 Alice Marshall has some useful links if you’re research trade shows.

 Infoworld‘s Matt McAlister wonders aloud about how the effects of RSS may impact online readership.

 Steve Rubel points to a thoughful article by Kevin Maney of USA Today on the current fervour around blogging.

 Rob Fisher over at PR Newswire has an interesting report on a recent forum on the intersection of blogs and journalism with Tony Perkins of AlwaysOn (nee Red Herring), Dan Gillmor and David Whelan of Forbes.

 The Hobson and Holtz Report has released a podcast interview with Mike Wing, VP of Strategic Communications at IBM.

 Meanwhile, Neville Hobson has been recently interviewed by PR Week on the subject of podcasting.

 Speaking of IBM, James Snell (of corporate blog guidelines fame)  was kind enough to get in touch with me to suggest a possible cause of my lost weblog posts.  Which is more than can be said of Radio’s “support” where I have yet to recieve any answers – and you have to pay for this product!  For any other Radio users out there, if you’re running Google software, be careful.

 Phil Gomes takes a refreshingly different take at the recent “alarm:clock-PR agencies are useless” episode. He draws a most amusing analogy between a small company with limited news value desiring outlandish media placements with his own desire for a date with Salma Hayek.

“To the degree that I would have to plan in order to achieve the goal of a date with Ms. Hayek, so too does successfully engaging the business press require significant preparation on the part of any startup or enterprise seeking coverage in those high-profile and highly coveted outlets. For one thing (and there are many gating factors), some folks in the business press won’t even touch a private company unless there has been significant coverage in the scientific, trade, and enthusiast media first. And, yes, engaging those outlets, in turn, requires a very significant amount of planning and preparation as well.”

 Jim Horton, as ever shares some honest thoughts on the daily challenges facing PR people everywhere.  Jim quietly tackles some of the major issues facing PR practitioners and is a recommended read.  Two recent posts to have a look at:
1) Can you save a client from themselves?
2) Web-centric communications [PDF]

 Harry Joiner has an interesting post on PR and the Internet.   He points to a primer [PDF] from Robin Mayhall  (Thanks to Andy Lark for the link)

 Michael O’Connor Clarke brings us his fourth installment of “The Seven Deadly Agency Types” with ‘The Flack of All Trades’.

 Michael also continues his coverage of the large organizations attempting to control the news agenda through their advertising dollars.  I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that a company that makes it’s business flogging disapearing fossil fuels with no alternative in sight should be trying to hold onto out-dated values.

 

There’s far too much blog-related navel gazing. There’s so much of itthat there’s a chance that the intelligent, passionate people who zealously promote the benefits of blogs may end up sitting forlornly on a little raft in the bay watching the world go past.

Shel Israel and Robert Scoble‘s chapter for their new book Naked Conversations on Survivial of the Publicists has been widely dissected in my absence, so I don’t intend to reproduce the analysis when (as you can see from the links below) there has already been some detailed commentary.

The chapter is a very interesting read, but rather than tackling where the blog sits in the grand PR architecture, it’s more of an evangelical article that uses some interesting case studies.  I think for that reason alone it is a recommended read for all PR practitioners.

The flaw in the thesis however is that it rehashes the age-old criticisms of PR and presents blogs as the answer to all our ills.

The move towards conversations between individuals and organizations has been inevitable for some time now.  Due credit should be given to the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto (now stop groaning) who have probably done more to bring this trend to the mainstream than any other group.  Their work has been supplemented by people like Dan Gillmor and of course the emergence of blogging.

But blogging is not the answer to every question.  It is a useful tool that provides a lot of benefits to those willing to commit the time, energy and resources to it.  But it’s not an end in itself.

Public Relations is changing.  But the breadth of the profession means that those change go far beyond blogs.  Do people really think that:

a) PR is dying
b) PR will only center on blogging

If you do, you need to up your dosage.

These are simplistic arguments.

Communications is a multi-faceted undertaking.  When e-mail became popular, organizations got lazy and started driving all their internal communications on it.  They soon learnt through bitter experience that the fastest, easiest and cheapest option, isn’t necessarily the most effective one. Most organizations have now adopted new technologies alongside their exisiting tools.  Don’t forget that face-to-face communication remains the most effective tool in the communications box.

I have been blogging for three years, I pitch blogs, I read RSS, I publish RSS.  I have adopted these technologies but they are only one element of my job. 

Public Relations is about effective communication with an audience.  Do we really think that a time will come when the only way people get information is from blogs? 

PR is changing because the audience is changing.  Any practitioner who fails to move with their audience is in trouble.  Blogs are an important new tool and is a part of those changes, but beware the doomsayers who believe that the are the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is blogging. As any Douglas Adams fan can tell you it’s actually 42. 

Footnote:

• Chapter 7: Survival of the Publicists – Naked Conversations
• Stop what you’re doing and read this – John Wagner
• Analysing Scoble and Israel on PR – Trevor Cook
• How could the Scobe/Israel chapter be improved? – Trevor Cook
• Blogs as journalism and PR – Naked Conversations
• PR is more complex than media relations – PR Opinions
• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• We the media – Dan Gillmor
• The Gluetrain Manifesto