Murphy's Law

Brian Carroll hosts the B2B Lead Generation Blog which deals with matters surrounding the challenging task of feeding the sales force.

He has recently been discussing the problems with bad lead information and the fact that it’s estimated that 20% of contact information changes annually.

We rarely discuss the more mundane parts of the PR Process, but database or contact management today is a bigger challenge for PR professionals than ever before.

Certainly in my day to day existence I have to track more contacts and preferences than ever before. Services like Vocus and MediaMap provide a useful source of contact data but the sheer numbers of media mean that it’s still a major job to keep up to date.  And of course we all know the dreaded bounced e-mail syndrome after your latest press release.

The phrase that best sums up the contact management process is “garbage-in, garbage-out”.

We host our own internal database of contacts and contact information which we supplement with MediaMap. I don’t use MediaMap’s own contact management features because I prefer hosting my data locally. Contact management is a big and important job.

How do you track your contacts? Any tips you want to share?

Richard Bailey was one of the first PR bloggers and it’s now a year since he moved from the practice side of the business to academia in the UK’s Leeds Metropolitan University. 

He critiques his first year in PR education.

The Chicago Sun-Times has published a news story that takes three facts and tries to weave them into a sensational story. 

• Fact number one, Edelman makes political contributions in Illinois.
• Fact number two, Edelman was recently re-awarded the Tourism account for Illinois
• Fact number three Edelman wasn’t the cheapest PR firm on the tender.

The headline reads:

“Chicago PR firm wasn’t low bidder, but got state deal”

The opening line reads:

“A Chicago public relations firm that has contributed $32,600 to Gov. Blagojevich was awarded a new multimillion-dollar state contract even though it wasn’t the lowest bidder.”

So, Edelman, like most corporations of any size make political donations (that are on the State records) and the fact that they have won a re-pitch of an existing client is that big a deal?

Give me a break, I’ve no connections to Edelman, but I think that’s sensationalim at its worst.

A call to any PR agency in North America (or 98% of them) and the journalist would have discovered that PR services don’t equate to paperclips. Service and performance outstrip cost in relative terms for clients every time.

Look out for the next big story in Chicago:

“PR Firm wasn’t the biggest consumer of Big Macs, but got McDonalds account.”

or

“PR Firm bought $20,000 of computer equipment from IBM, and got the PR account.”

My final thought on this is, that if it only costs $32K to, as the journalist is trying to insinuate, buy a tender process that has already garnered $12.2 million why aren’t we all doing it?

Give them a break, Jeezzzz…

As everyone working in PR today knows, information flows freely around the Internet.  Confidential information regularly finds its way out of every organization to the population at large, just look at InternalMemos.com.

But this lack of viscosity extends beyond proprietary data. 

Anyone employed by a company has to be careful who they’re talking to, and careful what they write on their weblogs.

It’s very easy for an innocent soundbite to spread like wildfire.

Kevin Schofield, who works in Microsoft’s research facility has a thoughtful observation on this very issue.

Update: The leaking of Windows source code is a great illustration of the dangers of the Internet, imagine how easy it is for e-mails to leak….

If you work in PR or work in a PR-related role, share your opinions with the first PR Opinions Survey.

All the results will be published in next week.

Elizabeth Albrycht has an interesting take on how this Social Networking stuff might help smaller companies promote their wares in a more equitable manner, much in the same way that Google Adwords has.

How will PR adapt to social networking?

It’s been a short while since I mentioned RSS. 

In the unfortunately fickle world of hyped technology, a mention from Rafe Needleman creates a lot of interest, so when I saw him writing about RSS and in particular ‘RSS readers’ I paid attention.  However I found myself disagreeing with him.  First of all, I don’t like tracking RSS feeds in Microsoft Outlook.

I have a hard enough time managing e-mail, tracking my contacts and schedule without adding RSS feeds into the already complex mess. I prefer my RSS reader standing on it’s own thanks. Secondly, I think there is a lot of merit in a non-Microsoft RSS offering.

Let’s face it, they’re most likely to wedge it inside Outlook and look for an upgrade to Office 2008 where your fingerprints and voiceprint will be needed to verify you are the actual registered user of the software… eh no thanks.

Then there’s all this stuff about Google choosing to ignore RSS…. zzzzzzzz

 Elizabeth Albrycht is doing some great work looking at Social Networking and its potential impact for small business.

 Bill Stoller gives his take on the four Seasons of PR. It’s MarketingSherpa so the usual ten day lifespan for the link applies.

 Jeremy Pepper reports on the news that Lizzie Grubman is to star in a reality show on the PR business.  Of course that raises the question of exactly which reality we’re talking about.  In case you don’t know Lizzie has a very colorful public profile. [Thanks to Jeremy!!]

 Phil points to a new weblog designed for editors around the planet to address professional issues.

 James Horton has a great post on how Public Relations concerns every facet of your organization not just your media face.

 John Cass links to an article on Crisis Management – Internet Style

 Robb Hecht points to a brief piece on online pressrooms.

 Trevor Cook has found an interesting story from USA Today on blogging.

 Kevin Dugan is out of action this week for medical reasons – we wish him a speedy recovery.

When a firm starts to get a little to wrapped up in their own importance, you should begin to worry about them.

Following the Mikerowesoft.com debacle, Microsoft (not to be confused with Mike Rowe) is at it again and they’re picking on another poor Canadian.

According to ZDNet, this time they’re after Mike Morris and his http://www.mikerosoft.ca/ web site.

You see I would have thought that the appalling security issues around Windows (which I use every day and have to add hundred to patches, bug fixes and anti-virus updates), the emergence of Linux and Billg’s recent promise to solve spam in two years (no laughing down the back) would have been plenty for them to focus on.  But no.  It seems not.

While many Microsoft employees are doing a good job putting a human face on the company, the ‘ole corporate legal team are funding the Canadian legal system with suits against teenagers – who are making little or no reference to Microsoft or its products on these websites.

If they were then I’d have some sympathy for Microsoft.  But they’re not.

Lighten up

You see, I am but a mere humble B2B PR practitioner.  I have grown up on years of promoting “speeds and feeds”, features, customer endosements and corporate interviews.  In summary, I am but a humble PR soul.

This reality is constantly reinforced by the continuing spiral of sense and sensibilities being showcased by my (and your) brethren in the world of entertainment.

You see cheap stunts have never been really my bag.  Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not adverse to some clever thinking for tactical gain, but the stunts we’re seeing now are so brain-numbingly predictable that I am losing the will to live.

We have pop stars marrying and getting it anulled hours later and now we have B-list pop singers ripping each other’s clothes off at the biggest TV event of the year. (I don’t want to get into a debate about whether it was a mistake or not).

So the more lewd we go, the more column inches we get for a week or so. Is that it? Whose next to drop their drawers on TV? When will the first celebrity murder happen live on TV? (We’ve had the subsequent chase already….)

When I read a story in AdAge with PR reps praising the stunt I really begin to wonder. I’d love to see the PR plan for her Superbowl appearance:

“Objective: Clearly position Janet Jackson as the foremost bare-breated performer in North America“

On that basis it was a success. And I know I’m extending the legs of this story by writing about it… that doesn’t make me feel any better.

I leave you with these thoughts…

78% of voters on AdAge.com believe the Janet Jackson stunt was brilliant PR.

From the Ad Age story:

For James LaForce, partner in New York PR agency LaForce & Stevens, the Jackson episode was “extremely successful. … We love stunts at our agency and she opened the door for more people to take risks,” he added. “It raises the bar for all of us.”

Said Andy Morris, principal at Andy Morris & Co., a New York PR firm that works closely with the music industry: “It is the ultimate stunt. I don’t see any downside for her. It fits perfectly with the new CD that’s about sex.”

I hope Michael Moore doesn’t go for a similar stunt that “fits perfectly” with his next book about the gun laws…..

And yes, I am a grumpy old man well before my time 🙂

Thanks to BL Ochman for the link