Murphy's Law

So you have embraced the brave new world of the Internet. You think it provides a real medium for communicating and influencing audiences and maybe even fostering new one-to-one relationships with journalists, customers, partners and other relevant publics.

So, what’s the first step? Lie. Yep, grab yourself an ‘alias’ and post untruths about competitors or unsubstantiated boasts about your firm or its clients.

At least that seems to be the growing trend amongst many of our brethern. The race to create ‘online buzz’ – the supposed nirvana for all communication programs – has continued unabated regardless of the economic conditions. But they mostly fail. Why? Well they are obvious, biased and are patently flogging a specific agenda.

I highlighted some examples of this online espionage here previously, most notable the Bivings Groups’ efforts for Monsanto. But there are even more ridiculous examples out there.

The Movie producers (who claim to be the most righteous when it comes to protecting THEIR rights online) are one of the most common offenders. From hiring actors to talk about films in bars and restaurants (pleeze) to posting false film reviews (Sony) and posting ‘excited’ messages to notice boards on the more popular Film websites.

It’s a great case study on how not to spread buzz. The website owners have traced all the posters’ IP addresses back to the movie studios – who claim they don’t sanction it – and they post the SAME message to different websites – DOH!

On top of all that, the movie studio flacks (and I use that term most advisedly) seem to think that the essence of ‘buzz posting’ is bad grammer, bad spelling, lower case and URL’s for film trailers. It really beggars belief.

So let’s all be realisitic. Good communications begins with an understanding of what your audience is looking for. Not lies but information, not subterfuge but value. It’s too easy to expose the liars online, if you’re going to try it, make sure you have a clear response for the angry ‘consumers’ when you’re found out. And here’s the LA Times story that inspired this Tuesday morning rant… [Comments]

According to a story in Information Week, the tech analyst firm, Hurwitz Group has closed due to overwhelming debt. Seemingly analysts were told on Monday that it would be their last day, and clients have not been informed. The website is inaccessible.

The Boston Globe reviews the “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR”….. Twenty years on, the Chicago Sun-Times revisits the Tylenol scandal and includes an interesting sidebar on the “brilliant PR response”….. Here’s something to give you indigestion MediaChannel.org’s “PR UnSpun”….. Reuters report that the European Commission (EC) has suspended a five year, twenty two million Euro contract with a French PR firm, Ascii. The steps were taken to avoid any suggestions of impropriety as it was discovered the firm employs three former Commission spokespeople [Reuters]….. AT&T has named Constance Weaver to the company’s Board of Directors as Executive VP of PR….. Fleishman-Hillard is the only PR firm named among the top 100 companies for working mothers….. And, finally the Toronto Globe and Mail has a story on how PR can help keep employees loyal…

PR Industry…errr…enjoys robust growth?
Amidst the doom and gloom surrounding the PR business in the current downturn, here’s some research that bucks the trends.

The tenth annual Thomas L. Harris/Impulse Research PR Client Survey which surveyed 1,540 participants across twenty four industries found internal PR budgets up twenty four percent, whilst budget for external agencies grew nineteen percent.

Other good news is that internal PR owners satisfaction with their agency is up five percent.

A very interesting and IMHO worrying statistic is that spending on Internet communications is down from thirteen percent in 2000 to five percent.

Finally the top read industry publications are PRWeek, Advertising Age, ADWEEK, O’Dwyer’s Newsletter and PR Strategist. [Comments]

The ultimate press release…..
Now there are some basic requirements from a press release. I’m sure you know them. The “When, Who, How, What and Where’ yardstick is always a useful place to start. But not everyone follows these guidelines. Oh no. For some people keeping the news a mystery is what’s important.

On Friday I happened upon one of the best examples of “confusion” as news. The press release in question was issued by Corum Group and it’s definetely worth a read, in the same way you are tempted to glance at the wreckage of an accident on the other side of the road…and don’t forget to check the quote…it’s a masterpiece.

Newly discovered PR & Marketing Blogs….
I’ve come across some PR and marketing blogs recently, John Mudd has a regularly updated PR blog…. Rick E Bruner’s Internet marketing/advertising weblog…. Robert Loch’s Internet Marketing Strategy and News… bBlog, “the sales, mktg and business weblog” and of course Anne Holland’s SherpaBlog

“Are webloggers journalists or just writers?”…
That was a question posed as part of a very interesting panel discussion which recently took place at the University of California Graduate School of Journalism. The panel included three journalists, Dan Gillmor, Scott Rosenberg and J.D. Lasica, two long-time bloggers, Rebecca Blood and Meg Hourihan and an audience of over seventy people. A report on the panel is available at the always excellent Online Journalism Review.

How is your IR and PR mix?…
With the ongoing corporate scandals, the focus on governance and communications has never been tighter. So how do you manage your IR? How do you integrate your IR and PR activity? Yesterday I happened upon a study [PDF] conducted earlier this year by Businesswire and Investor Relations Business magazine, which found that 71 percent of companies hadn’t consolidated PR and IR. More surprising (to me anyway) 16 percent of companies said that their PR function reports to the head of IR. Have a read of the study, it’s clear the need for co-operation between IR and PR has never been greater.

E-mail isn’t dead yet…..
The advent of e-mail has changed the professional lives of PR people irrevocably. It’s faster, more efficient and easier to manage than phone and fax, but it has also brought additional pressure, information overload and spam. Spam is the big worry, as the volume grows, so E-mail’s effectiveness is reduced and it becomes harder to rise above the noise. (By the way Cloudmark continues to impress!)

But the spammers haven’t won yet. A survey just published by Digital Impact Inc. (excuse their Flash) shows that that 79 percent of respondents have a neutral-to-positive view of e-mail marketing and 71 percent have purchased a product or service based on e-mail marketing. Rather than killing e-mail, spam is benefitting those who utilize permission marketing techniques and target e-mail commuication at people who care. There are lessons there for PR.

On a related matter, MarketingSherpa have published “The E-Mail Marketer’s Guide: Hard Data for 2002” that looks at the use and success of e-mail marketing. Among the findings, e-mail marketing accounted for 15 percent of online sales last year – an increased of 12 percent year-on-year. 64 percent of Internet users check their e-mail at least twice a day and about one third of all e-mail is spam. You can purchase the report here.

“The secret to lying is telling people what they want to hear…”
Thanks to Dave Winer for a link to a very interesting story from the San Francisco Chronicle on the dot.com craze. Nothing new there you might think, but this one looks at the role the media played in the hype. Very interesting piece.