Murphy's Law

 Jeremy Pepper has a great interview with Dan Gillmor, former San Jose Mercury News Tech luminary, author of the wonderful We the Media, contributor to the Financial Times and latterly founder of Grassroots Media Inc.

“Just that I would encourage people to understand that this is all still fairly new, and people are starting to get it in a significant way in the news business and in the PR business.

It�s going to take a lot of trial and error to get it right, but the best thing for people in traditional industries is to not try to control it � or to “harness” the power of citizen media. In the physical world, to harness means, for example, to throw a bridle over a horse�s head and fight with the horse to where it�s going to go. That�s not what I want to do, nor what anyone else should be trying to do. It�s about working with, and paying attention, to the blogs and grassroots.

It�s a conversation.”

 Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal has a guide to using RSS. [Thanks to Mike Manuel for the link]

 New and Notable: a new PR blog from Ken Kerrigan called InPeRspective.

 More accusations of possible impropriety in the award of a government PR contract and here’s another one for a public schools PR contract.

 Speaking of possible impropriety in government PR circles….

 In the latest move towards transparency in journalism 🙂 Fast Company magazines asks its readers to pick the winner from three recent PR pitches.

 

If you’ve worked in any kind of Public Relations role for more than four or five minutes you’ll know the joy of knee jerking. Ah yes, nothing is more personal than a media story.

How many times have you taken calls from clients or colleagues who are outraged at something a journalist has written, which in the cold light of day is at worst case a mistake and best case the truth.

Your job (should you wish to accept it) is to bring the world of reality to your client. We live in an imperfect world.

Often what seems, at the time, to be a major injustice, is in reality, when observed with an objective viewpoint nothing.

One of the more unappealing aspects of blogs and blogging is this same knee jerk behavior.  It seems to me that people spend more time reacting to issues than actually thinking about them.

The most recent example is Molly Wood‘s article for CNET which I referenced below. Molly talks about how in a world full of blogs and rumor sites the traditional NDA tactics of technology vendors have passed their sell by date. I agree with her in many respects, and in fact for all the blog zealots out there, she’s actually saying that blogs are becoming a mainstream source of information.

Now you would have thought that was something that the bloggers would like – particularly as she linked to them.

Oh no.

Jason Calacanis, CEO of Weblogs.com fires a broadside at Molly entitled:

CNET tries to take down Engadget

Oh dear.

What follows is a self-serving rant on how wonderful weblogs.com is and how Molly is a bad journalist for not contacting them for comment. Now re-reading Molly’s column I still can’t work out why there would have been a need to contact them.  Furthermore did anyone notice the irony that Jason contradicts his entire argument by not contacting Molly for a comment?

He makes it worse by finishing up with what can only be described as the “throwing your rattle out of the pram” strategy:

You don�t own the news, and since you�re so interested in ethics you�ll be happy to know that I�ve launched my own little investigation into ethics at CNET. Anyone with information on ethics at CNET can call me at 310 828 8284 or send me details at jason at calacanis dot com.”

Jebus.

Now whilst I am not a ‘leading PR blogger’ (Edelman said so, so it must be true), I am an ‘old PR blogger’ (I said so, so it must be true) and one of the advantages of old age is experience and reason. 

This child-like rant serves no purpose other than to make Jason look like some sort of spoilt child.  He has completely mis-read Molly’s column, in my opinion, and of course in the blog echo chamber I’m sure his rant is getting more pick up than the original column.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the latest example of why traditional PR counsel is every bit as relevant today as in the past.  If Jason had some sensible PR advice he could have used this episode to his advantage rather than coming over as some sort of crank.

Always think before you push the send/publish button.

 

 Ben Silverman has completed some very interesting research with fifty journalists at daily newspapers.  Among the findings:

• 26% of those surveyed open less than 50% of press releases they recieve via e-mail
• 36% recieve press releases via fax and 56% of those, read the releases they get via fax
• 70% monitor the press release wires
• 76% don’t believe that blogs provide a useful research tool

Ben has a lot more here.

 Molly Wood over at CNET has a really interesting opinion piece on the reality of IT vendors’ “control” over unannounced products.  It hits on a key point for PR and marketing people everywhere. In an online world control isn’t an option.

“And that brings me to the crux of my point today. Thanks to the Internet, there’s a new model for controlling information–that is, a complete lack of control. Bloggers, rumor sites, and even inside sources are running the show, but tech manufacturers are still stuck in their Cold War-like product release behaviors….. We media types need to quit kowtowing to manufacturers who are trying in vain to hold on to the last shred of control they think they have. Those manufacturers need to wake up and smell the RSS feeds–the information’s already out there. Quit acting like you’re doling out spoonfuls of sugar to the deserving few. Your audience is getting its sugar elsewhere.”

 Alice Marshall and Pete Shinbach both point to another example of the clueless pitching the blogger.

 Steve Rubel has a very interesting post on the impact of new collaborative sites such as Wikipedia on the corporate brand.

 The current issue of Bacon’s (nee MediaMap) Expert PR is out with stories on corporate image, PR and RSS, sponsorship, and an interview with Bob Wallace, Editor in Chief of Telecommunications Magazine amongst others..

 

I praise the good work of Good Morning Silicon Valley regularly through this collection of HTML pages.  They’ve now launched a blog which I highly recommend.

• Peter Himler has kicked off a new PR blog called The Flack.

 

• Steve Lubetkin has launched a relatively new PR blog.

 

It’s good to see that the number of analyst relations focused blogs is growing.  Here are two relatively new blogs:

• Joe Guralnick writes Gartner Watch – fairly self explanatory, I meant to post a link to Joe’s blog some time ago. Joe gives an introduction to why he’s writing about Gartner here.

 

• Meanwhile ARmadgeddon is a new Analyst Relations blog that remains annonymous.  I’m always a little uncomfortable with bloggers who don’t reveal their identity and therefore their agenda, however you’re old enough to make your own decisions and there’s some interesting content up there.

Update:

“ARonaut” from ARmadgeddon has been in touch to let me know that the reason the contributors are annonymous is so that they don’t adversely affect their relationships with analyst firms. I can confirm that “ARonaut” doesn’t work for an analyst firm.

Credit where it’s due.  The folks at Opera Software compete in a very demanding marketplace.  When they’re not fighting the might of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, they’re faced with the momentum of Mozilla… and to top it off they actually sell an Internet browser for money.

For the latest release of their eponymous browser, the company’s CEO, Jon S. von Tetzchnerat, told staff that if the downloads topped 1 million within four days of it’s launch he’d (ahem) swim from their headquarters in Norway to the US….

Guess what? The target was met.

So into the water went the CEO (with his trusty PR executive in a rubber dinghy) and low and behold the dinghy sank, the CEO had to “save” his PR colleague and the attempt was cancelled 🙂

Fantastic PR. A great use of humor and proof that clever thinking can reap rewards without the need for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Further reading

• The (ahem) official account.
• Opera boss makes good on pledge to swim to America
• Media Stunt ends in “dramatic rescue at sea”

 

 Kevin Dugan has documented an interesting example of competitive blog relations.  Forrester analyst Charlene Li’s blog covered some new developments on Google‘s personalized search services and Yahoo‘s PR team were quick to respond. 

 Pete Shinbach points to an interesting NPR report on how Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew used his uncle’s theses to create effective Public Relations techniques.

 Jim Horton has published an interesting paper on the conflicts between marketers and PR consultants…

 Jeremy Pepper has an interview with Al Golin, chairman of Golin Harris.

“Too many young people are not in touch with today. That�s why I am still in the business, because I am very curious. I always want to continue to learn, and being curious is one of the most single important things in PR. I love it when a young kid asks me a lot of questions. I hate it when people don�t ask questions. I rather have too many asked, than not enough.”

 Stuart Bruce offers some thoughts on RSS, in particular on the need for localized, segmented RSS feeds to address different audiences.

 The Red Couch, a project being led by Shel Israel and Robert Scoble, has an interview with Jonathan Schwartz on Sun’s blogging efforts.

 I meant to post this story a while back.  If you want proof, for once and for all, that PR’s value is linked to it’s lack of control, here’s a great example.  Siebel‘s PR folks did a great job promoting the achievements and vision of their CEO Michael Lawrie.  They secured excellent profiles and got him on the cover of a number of magazines, including Information Week and EWeek, the week of April 4. The stories were positive, demonstrated good vision, had good third party support, then just over a week he was fired by the board….  You have my sympathies. Don Tennant at Computerworld has some observations on the matter.

 

The widespread adoption of e-mail caused a lot of people to get lazy.  Rather than calling someone or setting up face-to-face meetings, people started using e-mail for tasks it is not suited to – just because it was easier.

For example, think of all the executives who have blasted their management team via an e-mail, only for their communication to make it outside the firewall and harm their business.

I am hoping we’re not going to see a similar trend with blogging.

Steve Rubel points to some recent examples of interviewees who were unhappy with the quotes attributed to them following media interviews. They both decided to highlight the perceived errors on their weblogs.

Now I don’t have any particular issue with that, after all blogs provide a great platform for opinions, however we shouldn’t view this practice as an end in itself.  It’s also important that if you’re (justifiably) unhappy with the result from an interview you should contact the journalist and discuss it.  That’s what building relationships is all about and that is the cornerstone of good communication.

Let’s look at an example. 

John Battelle was unhappy with the quotes attributed to him in a New York Times story on Google by Saul Hansell:

I now see the Times piece. Well, it sure makes me out as anti-Google. I did say everything that I am quoted to say, however the context is off on the first section.

However, Saul posts a response pointing out that the comments were in fact in context and John recants.

Now there’s nothing wrong with using a blog to put forward your side of a story or your opinions, but just because it’s an easy way to respond doesn’t mean it’s the right way. 

There’s no question that transparency is a two-way street and in that vein, I believe that the journalist deserves a right of reply, contact them and raise your concerns in a constructive manner, often you’ll discover that you were incorrect, often you’ll discover they were wrong but at least you have closed the loop and are free to post your side of the story.  Of course the positive aspect of the Battelle-Hansell episode is that there is a conversation taking place.

I would however recommend that before you decide to post about how you were misquoted, you think about the best, most beneficial way to address your percieved injustice.  Good communication isn’t a one way street.

Footnote:

In Steve’s original post he states:

“I can see a day coming soon where other senior execs will say, “Mr. Reporter, send me your interview questions and I will post my responses on my blog.” This won’t fly for everyone, but it will for those who have been burned and are powerful enough to exert such control.”

My view is that it’s highly unlikely that any journalist would ever agree to such terms.  I also fervently hope that if any executive was stupid or ignorant enough to try it, that the journalist, in the spirit of transparency, would post the executive’s request in a prominent position in the publication or website or blog… Executives demanding control over media content isn’t about the new era of transparency, conversation or openness. No folks that’s old fashioned control.

 

Issues Dynamics has launched a new blog practice or should that be a ‘blogger relations’ practice.

While it’s good to see a PR firm embracing blogs – though I’d strongly argue that blog relations should be part of the agency and not a seperate entity – this is not exactly breaking news given the number of new blog relations practices that have been launched over the past year, but what’s very impressive is that Issue Dynamics have been performing blog relations since 1993, now that’s vision….

From their press release:

“Issue Dynamics, Inc., pioneers in blogging and Internet services since 1993, has launched a formal Blogger Relations Practice”