Murphy's Law

Baseline magazine has a short piece on the possible impact of blogging on your business.  It uses Microsoft as an example, but doesn’t cover much new ground. If you’re interested in more on business blogging click here.

Rainier PR, a UK PR company, undertook some research on how PR agencies were faring in meeting the needs of the UK media.  The findings are here.

Of course the major finding here is that there is no new finding. 

Journalists still have the same age old issues with PR people.  It seems to be the same in every country and every industry sector – though some are worse offenders that others.

And the bad news is we don’t seem to be getting any better or listening to the advice.

To highlight the common themes that run through all these surveys read Mitch Wagner’s comments from last August and compare it to the Ranier research.  Spot the similarities?

Every industry needs effective crisis communications plans and the US BSE scare is illustrating the importance of learning from history and the difficulty in managing a crisis in a highly fragmented market ecology.

Following on from the post on Tuesday, Business 2.0 has a very interesting story on the BSE scare that looks at how the various industry parties from the US Dept. of Agriculture to the Fast Food outlets are handling the scare.

Of course the UK Beef industry has been dealing with this issue for some considerable time and their experience provides a useful reference point for the US industry. In particular the biggest mistakes they made. It’s a great example of how all PR people should learn the lessons of the past so as not to make the same mistakes in the future.

Thanks to Laura Goldberg for the link.

You have to take notice when the man responsible for many of the world’s largest PR agencies gives his view on the business.  Sir Martin Sorrell is the CEO of WPP the marketing group that owns amongst others Burson Marsteller, Hill & Knowlton, Cohn & Wolfe and Ogilvy PR.  He recently gave an interview to PR Week on what’s in store for 2004.

Sorrell on the outlook for 2004:

“We had high hopes, following the recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that PR, because it had become more specialized, would be insulated. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I’m not clever enough to figure out why. It may have to do with the fact that PR – a lot of my colleagues get very upset when I say this – is less global”

Sorrell on what’s important for the PR agency business:

“Focus is important. What has tended to happen is that these businesses have become too big and too sprawling. You can see that through some of the consolidations that have taken place. I’m not just talking about public relations here, but also advertising and design, all of the consolidations I have seen.”

Sorrell on what he’s like to see from his PR brands in 2004:

“More focus, less dilution. More specialization. I still think if we know more about a topic, we will succeed. I think it’s organization. Having fewer, better people at the top, and bringing in better young people who can do the implementation and learn the business over time.”

Whilst the interview obviously drives the agenda for the consolidated PR super groups, it’s interesting to see what the big boys are thinking.

 Jeremy Pepper shares his views on what’s in store for PR in 2004.

 Colin McKay has some interesting thoughts on the issues surrounding the BSE (and SARS) crisis (and its similarities to Jaws – the film 🙂

“The first death is swift, savage and out of the blue. Public officials blame it on a fluke. They predict a speedy and inexpensive resolution. When more deaths occur, the officials shift to denial and damage control. They’re concerned about bad publicity, how it will hurt tourism and trade. The menace suddenly halts and the officials rejoice: “Everything will soon be back to normal,” they say. Then the deaths start happening again … “

 Elizabeth Albrycht points to an interesting story on how the US Navy is looking at blogs as a real-time collaborative tool for teams in different locations (and different organizations).

 I’ve been reading the B2B Lead Generation blog for quite some time and it is an interesting read for anyone concerned with the business of delivering quality leads for the salesforce.

 Trevor Cook believes that employee communications should be at the top of every PR person’s priorities for 2004.

“Employee communications often get the most desultory treatment in organisations falling well behind customer, media, investor and government relations in terms of strategic focus and resources. Yet a strong case can be made for putting employees at the top of our priorities.”

 

 The Portland Business Journal has an interesting story looking at the PR challenges facing the US Beef Industry following the Mad Cow scare.

Crisis communications in action.

 Meanwhile, Dave Jung over at the B2Blog is the star turn on a nice introductory feature on blogs at the Grand Rapids Press.

(I’m still catching up, normal service should resume tomorrow!)

I am still struggling to catch up on last week’s events, however here are a few things that have caught my eye…

 Silicon Valley PR pioneer Fred Hoar passed away last week.  Jeremy Pepper has a touching personal post on Fred’s passing and in other sad news, Richard Bailey points out that UK PR pro Esther Kaposi also passed away last week.

 The New Yorker profiles Gene Weber, an eighty-eight year old PR man still going strong.

 Some tips on how to work with a PR firm…..

 

Hello.  Well PR Opinions is back online after some much required rest.

A new year but some of the same old issues keep coming back.

While I was away, Towers Perrin, a (take a deep breath) global professional services firm that helps organizations around the world improve their performance through effective people, risk and financial management, published an interesting study that found that only 51% of employees believed that their employers generally tell the truth.

Now as we all know, good communication starts at home (ahem) and it looks like there are a whole range of issues there.

“These results reveal a worrisome employer-employee dynamic that should be a wake-up call to any senior executive or leader who will need to communicate with employees in 2004,” said Mark Schumann, Towers Perrin principal and leader of the firm’s HR Services business communication consulting practice. 

Thanks to Joanne for the link.

PR Opinions will be on hiatus recovering from the Season’s festivities until January 12, 2004.

 

The new and widely covered US Can-Spam Act, which has been designed to address unsolicited commercial e-mail (though I haven’t noticed any drop off so far) is now in place.

So how does this affect PR communications?

Well, sending press releases via e-mail could be contrued as commercial e-mail, even though it’s not advertising per se. (Disclaimer: The following advice doesn’t include any legal input, you should consult your legal counsel for the full implications of the legislation) It’s probably best to understand the new requirements and where applicable amend your e-mail processes.

At the very least any “mass” PR e-mails should provide:

1. A physical company address for your company (agency or in-house)
2. A clear, working opt-out option to enable journalists to unsubscribe from subsequent e-mails
3. The e-mail should be sent from an individual with a working e-mail address not an alias.

Secondary issues include:

1. Process any opt-out requests within ten days of receipt
2. Include a denotation such as “PR” in the subject line of your message which clearly highlights the nature of your e-mail
3. Don’t use misleading subject line descripitions

The Can-Spam Act shouldn’t impact PR professionals who are using e-mail responsibly, but it makes sense to be careful and where possible adhere to its guidelines.