Murphy's Law

 Podcasting has the potential to add a whole new dimension to corporate communication at a low cost.  Delivering relevant interesting content via MP3 which visitors can listen to at their desk or download onto their MP3 players for consumption at a later point.  It’s a development that you should be trying to find out about today.  I was delighted to discover that two of the more prolific PR bloggers have come together to kick off a PR podcasting effort. Beginning in January, Shel Holtz (with a nice new blog format!) and Neville Hobson will be providing a weekly podcast on all matters PR. They’ve created a new blog for the podcast and you can subscribe to the podcast RSS feed here. Kudos.

 Media Insider has some great quotes on crisis communication.

“The three virtues of an effective crisis communicator are responsiveness, accuracy and honesty. When folks fade away from these qualities, they’re setting up both their clients and themselves for a huge fall — one much greater than if they had done the ‘right thing’ in the first place. Nobody — not even reporters — can anticipate a company to be perfect and crisis-free, but they do have every right and reason to expect the highest level of responsiveness, accuracy and honesty.”

 Mike Manuel points to a very interesting article in Wired written by Adam Penenberg, assistant professor at New York University which argues that the media embargo has outlived it’s usefulness and is now hampering effective, timely reporting.

“Until they (Editors) refuse to abide by them, however, embargoes will continue to hold sway, to the joy of publicists everywhere. And that’s a shame, because it makes no sense to sit on life-altering news when we have the web at our disposal.”

 Tom Foremski has an insightful post from Mark Coker of Dovetail Public Relations who mulls over the dilemma facing PR agencies who do a great job with small clients only for the client’s success to lead to an acquisition and therefore a lost client…

 Kevin Dugan has published the second part of his interview with Richard Laermer and he has some fresh thoughts on blogs…

“I like the myriad of PR blogs, I admit, because they unlike toothless political ones from the last harsh election tend to be a nice news source on the hype businesses and the media itself. I tend to spend a lot of my time reading about the media and how much they love their antics. Whew, boy. It�s a party every day in that clique!….. Rant over. However, since powerful and decision-making folks use blogs as a way to become informed � yes, unfortunately � I think PR folks have a whole new slew of publishing sources they can go to with their own correspondence and angles/hooks/story lines/what have you.”

 Fortune magazine has an interesting story on blogging.

“The blog�short for weblog�can indeed be, as Scoble and Gates say, fabulous for relationships. But it can also be much more: a company’s worst PR nightmare, its best chance to talk with new and old customers, an ideal way to send out information, and the hardest way to control it. Blogs are challenging the media and changing how people in advertising, marketing, and public relations do their jobs. A few companies like Microsoft are finding ways to work with the blogging world�even as they’re getting hammered by it. So far, most others are simply ignoring it.”

 If you’re interested on doing some blog-related reading over the next week here are some lists of recent blog stories.  The Corporate Blogging blog has five stories and Amy Gahran has five others.

 Shel Holtz points to some research from WordBiz Report that found that while 68% of e-mail marketers are worried about the declining effectiveness of e-mail only 23% have even used RSS. This is no surprise but hopefully RSS will continue to grow in 2005. 

 David Davis undertook some ad hoc research on the training plans for 25 PR agencies in the US and the UK.  Among the findings was that 90% of respondents said training is the first line item to be cut, 68% of training will be carried out in house and only 5% of senior management will be expected to undertake training…

 Kevin Dugan has some advice over at WebProNews for PR people looking to pitch bloggers.

 MotorTrend reprints an article from Public Relations Tactics that evaluates whether GM’s infamous Oprah giveaway is marketing or Public Relations.. it seems to me that any successful PR campaign is tightly aligned to marketing therefore is this discussion academic? At the least it provides some interesting stats on the outcome.

 

Well I am off for an extended break over the holidays, so posting will be sporadic for the next week or so.

Have a great one!

The problem with sticking your neck out at this time of year with predictions for the next twelve months is that you have a moral responsibility to review the trends to see how accurate you’ve been…

Last December I suggested….

1. Unfortunately I think that PR’s profile will continue to be attacked in 2004 as it has for much of the past decade! (Find out for yourself how much the profession hasn�t changed in the past twelve years).

 

Fairly obvious this one and nothing has changed… 

 

2. PR agency spending will re-bound slightly in 2004.

 

I don’t have any hard statistics on agency spend in 2004 but from conversations with various agency folks things seem to be picking up. We did get confirmation during the year that 2003 wasn’t a good year.

 

3. As PR spending recovers look out for more selective PR agency acquisitions in 2004 to follow the likes of Applied Communications.

 

There wasn’t a lot of M&A activity this year so this was a miss…

 

4. With the volume of spam still rising, RSS will continue to proliferate as a means of communicating with journalists, analysts, staff, customers, partners and communities, it may even begin to break outside the technology business � though it�s a couple of years away from mainstream.  Also, PR people will increasingly use RSS throughout 2004 to monitor what�s going on in their clients� markets.

 

RSS is quietly plugging away and with large companies such as IBM now providing all their news via RSS this is a hit… 

 

5. Look out for blogs and weblogs to move beyond the technology business into other business-to-business and consumer markets � more targets for you to track.

 

Blogs are definetely proliferating though I’m not sure their corporate adoption was as fast as I thought.  Indeed blogs continue to thrive in the realm of the individual…

 

6. Your favorite magazines will begin to swell again as Advertising spend begins to recover.

 

Most magazines are beginning to (slowly) grow again, though as with my other trends not as fast as I would have imagined…

 

7. However, staffers will continue to be overworked as publications refuse to spend until absolutely necessary.  All the more reason to keep tight tabs on the freelancers in your market � they�ll be busier this year than at any time since the dot bomb.

 

This is a hit.  Freelancers are accounting for a large and growing proportion of media conerage…

 

8. Consumers will continue to become more sophisticated, which translates into more work for PR.  They�ll use multiple sources for decision making and that means you�ll have to work with multiple sources to help your clients make sales.

 

I am delighted to report this is also a hit. Recent research has found that as consumers in any given market become more educated they use a variety of different means to find information…

 

9. 2004 will be a time when online measurement becomes commonplace and affordable � track the success of your tactics in real-time.

 

There have been some developments in measurement including a new cheaper online measurement tool…

 

10. The next twelve months will demand a host of new skills from PR practitioners � search engine optimization for one will be an increasingly important skill.  Also don�t forget you own communications, make sure you are involved in how your clients can effectively communication across all media from press releases to web sites�

 

This depends on your role, but certainly I see a lot more PR practitioners getting involved in SEO even if we’re at the early stages.. 

 

 

Well not too bad. I think for the next twelve months, M&A activity among PR agencies will grow, we should see more corporate blogs and I expect all the other trends to continue also.

 

If you disagree let me know!

Rick Bruner has an interesting interview with Christine Halvorson, company blogger at Stonyfield Farms who currently run four different corporate blogs.

“Our company has experienced phenomenal growth, and we have a certain “personality” in the world–we care about the environment; about healthy food; about supporting family farms.  With growth, we fear losing touch with what is a very loyal and committed customer base, and so our CEO, Gary Hirshberg, saw the blogs as a way to continue to personalize our relationship with our customers.”

 

 

Tom Foremski has a glowing profile on Voce Communications, home to two of the better known PR bloggers:

• Mike Manuel
• Matthew Podboy.

“Now Voce is moving against the grain again. Local PR companies such as Outcast, Text 100, Bite PR and Horn Group are intently focused on winning large enterprise clients. Voce revealed to SiliconValleyWatcher.com that it is working with the biggest dotcom of them all: Yahoo, the world’s largest Internet media company. And what is it doing for Yahoo? Helping set up its blogs, helping it publish internally-generated content and involve thousands of readers.”

Well it was only a matter of time but we now have our own PR fiction blog.

Follow the exploits of our heroine Maria Xenia Eleftheriadis, director of corporate communications at MegaloCorp and her colleagues.

You can follow events at MegaloCorp blog.

Given the season that’s in it, I think it’s worthwhile to highlight well intentioned commercial promotions.

Online monitoring service CyberAlert is offering 10 non-profit organizations PR grants and free online monitoring for a year. 

Organizations interested in participating in the scheme should apply here.

Rather amusing version of Christmas…

Whereas, on or about the night prior to Christmas, there did occur at a certain improved piece of real property (hereinafter “the House”) a general lack of stirring by all creatures therein, including, but not limited to a mouse.

A variety of foot apparel, e.g., stocking, socks, etc., had been affixed by and around the chimney in said House in the hope and/or belief that St. Nick a/k/a/ St. Nicholas a/k/a/ Santa Claus (hereinafter “Claus”) would arrive at sometime thereafter. The minor residents, i.e. the children, of the aforementioned House were located in their individual beds and were engaged in nocturnal hallucinations, i.e. dreams, wherein vision of confectionery treats, including, but not limited to, candies, nuts and/or sugar plums, did dance, cavort and otherwise appear in said dreams.

The world of Public Relations is diverse.  It cuts across every industry, country and language in the world.  Furthermore, it also includes a wide range of different disciplines from the ever-popular media relations to internal communication, investor relations, community relations, customer communications and any other form of communication you can think of.

 

This diversity has led to the emergence of experts in each industry, along with a large number of �generalists� who cover many of these different areas.

 

However, PR can often differ dramatically in the same industry.  In particular the divide that often appears between agency-in-house practitioners.

 

In my experience, the one fundamental difference between the agency and in-house practitioner, and the difference that is often not recognized and therefore leads to confusion and frustration is their primary objective. 

 

In the case of the in-house pro their number one priority is (or should be) the success of their employer.  Once the employer is successful their job is secure, there are opportunities for growth and advancement.  Whilst there is no question that the client�s success is very important to the agency practitioner, it isn�t their number one priority.  That priority, and in many respects how they are measured, is the success of their account group and their agency in attracting, retaining and growing client business.

 

But this is not just about money.  The daily working day for each can be similar while at the same time completely different.  The agency person has to become a master of time management, spreading their efforts between clients and having to quickly �change hats� as they undertake programs in often-divergent market areas on behalf of their clients.  Meanwhile in-house people also tackle a set of diverse audiences, but these are typically different departments within their organization from finance, to human resources, sales, engineering, distribution etc.

 

Much of the frustration that develops in the relationship is down to misunderstandings about each other�s roles.  The in-house person working with an agency is subject to a wide range of often-unseen pressures.  These can include onerous managers, demanding department heads, budget restrictions etc.

 

Furthermore, while most agency practitioners live in a 24×7 PR environment, the majority of in-house practitioners do not.  They are typically part of a much larger marketing and often sales organization and will end up not only working on pure PR projects but with other areas of the marketing function or HR on issues such as internal communications.

 

I am glad to see that many of the barriers between in-house and agency practitioners have dissolved over the past decade.  The greatest agent of change has been increased mobility among our profession, who now commonly move from in-house to agency roles and vice versa.  These moves have helped to educate both sides on the strengths and weaknesses of each other�s approach.

 

What�s the key to successful relationship?

 

That�s a really hard question because there is no simple right answer.  Having thought about this for a while I�m happy to provide some guidelines and would love to hear the thoughts of both in-house and agency folk on these:

 

1)      Respect.
Too often I have found (on both sides of the house) that there is a distinct lack of respect in the relationship.  Sometimes its one-sided, often it is caused by both sides.  The simple fact is that regardless of your role, you need to respect your opposite number, who has been employed/retained to work with you on achieving your joint goals. In the past there was an element of snobbery between agency and in-house staff, thankfully that is receding, because nothing will damage an account more than a lack of respect.

 

2)     Understand.
Make an effort to understand the differences between your roles.  The in-house person is serving a range of diverse internal audiences and that diversity can always create pressure.  The agency practitioner similarly has a diverse set of functions to perform for a number of clients.  Understand how the agency works and understand what to expect from your investment.

 

3)      Be realistic.
Your client will not always be able to find fifteen customers in fifteen different industries willing to promote their products.  Likewise the CEO can be too busy to meet or talk with you. Plan around it.  Your PR agency is limited by your investment in their services.  They need to be involved in your planning, they need time to build lists, pitches etc. and no they cannot guarantee the front cover of Time in the next six months.

 

4)      Try it.
The only true way to understand your opposite number is to spend time in their shoes.  Whether you spend some time in-house or in your agency, or decide to jump to the �other� side, you will never understand their challenges or issues from a couple of daily calls and a monthly meeting. It�s just not that simple.

 

5)      Partnership.
I have to admit I always cringe when I see agencies publishing helpful �how to select an agency� op-eds.  Vested interest anyone? However that matter aside the most common element in these lists is a relevant one: partnership.  Successful client-agency relationships are partnerships.  Agencies are right to expect time with senior management, they are right to demand the specific tools and resources they need from the client.  But partnership is a two way street.  It you expect your client to be your partner then they have the right to expect a similar commitment from you and that doesn�t just mean billable hours.

 

6)      Flexibility.
Each role faces different objectives, different time requirements and different pressures.  The faster you both understand your opposite number�s challenges, the faster you will build a relationship that is mutually beneficial.  Your agency contact can�t spend 24 hours a day, seven days a week working for you on a retainer of $2,000 per month.  That�s not how it works.  Likewise if there�s internal pressure your in-house counterpart may not have the time you�d like to devote to you. Be flexible.

 

The agency role and the in-house role continue to differ quite dramatically.  I�m often asked which I prefer and to be honest I can�t answer that question.  I have really enjoyed working on both sides of the fence.

 

What I can tell you is that often you are talking about two very different jobs, with different stress points and requirements. 

 

Failing to understand and respect these differences is a recipe for disaster.

 Kevin Dugan has posted the first in a two part interview with Richard Laermer, TV PR personality, best selling PR author and somewhere in between boss of a successful New York PR firm. In the interview he offers his six tips for PR Pros:

1. Follow through on everything you say you�re going to do with journalists. Double check that you did it.

2. Think huge. If you want to make a stale story bigger, imagine the connection to something that�s already in the minds of reporters (and the ultimately-bored public). Make it the nuttiest idea � add some logic to it and send it out. What�s a trend, anyway? THREE THINGS. Find two others in the culture that connects to your product. Brainstorm the idea with some buddies. It�s like a paint party for the brain � everyone takes a brush and has some fun with it.

3. Stay informed. When I was a kid I read about the folks who made it through the Depression unscathed. They were the ones who had spent time carefully reading the teeny media (newspapers and blogs. Kidding!). I think about RLM and how fortunate �and smart � the group of executives there were, to make a conscious decision to step away from the wreckage of consumer dot com in the late 90�s. We read the writing on more than walls. There�s a selfish reason for me wanting PR folks to be informed. It makes you more interesting if you know a little about every subject out there. Heck, who wants to go to a cocktail party and meet dull folks?

4. Get immersed in the business or industry of your client. We need to understand and really help our customers with their goals. I was really impressed when PR News changed their mission to be, �Building the bridge between PR and the bottom line.� How much better is that for us than �the news of the PR world�? As if.

5. Pitch. Go and talk to reporters. I have seen more managers and C-type Public Relations professionals get to a point in their career where that�s, um, beneath them. Oh boy. If you don�t talk to reporters then you�re not a PR person. If you�re not in touch with the media you are not helpful to the troops. You�re just a suit. Sorry that�s harsh. Nah I�m not sorry.

6. Follow through. I know I said it �twice -but it�s the most important �teaching� I can dole. You can�t imagine how many reporters just shake their head at us PR types when we don�t do what we say we�re going to do. And we have no excuse. It�s our job!

 PR Newswire’s Media Insider has some interesting findings from a recent survey they conducted regarding quoted companies and the “quiet period”. 67% of respondents felt that the SEC should liberalize the quiet period regulations, while 78% say that the current regulations are outdated. I’d be surprised if you could discover any agreement with those findings in the SEC….

 Elizabeth Albrycht points to a new Network World supplement called Network Life which is aimed, quite cleverly, at tech execs by day who by night are besieged by friends and relatives for technical information. This is a great publication idea, hopefully the content can match the potential.  In terms of the much maligned “virus marketing” idea this audience is a major “sneezer” to reach the great unwashed consumer. The site looks great and they already have a number of blogs up and running.  Elizabeth points to a recent blog entry regarding a meeting between editor Tony Kistner and 2Wire VP Brian Sugar…. see blogs can be informative and interesting…

 Neville Hobson offers some interesting advice and tips, in the aftermath of Peoplesoft’s accession to Oracle, on communicating in a merger.

 PR Week has an interesting interview with PR uber blogger Stevel Rubel:

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was rewarding. But if it weren’t bringing visibility to the firm, I wouldn’t be doing it. [The blog] is helping the firm make connections. We found an extremely good hire through my blog. We probably would have looked for several weeks. That underscores the power of connections. I’ll give a fictional scenario. If I’m asked by a potential client for support abroad, I know PR bloggers around the world. I don’t think that’s socialism; I think it’s networking.”

 Hans Kullin has a great link for anyone with an interest in Internet history (sadly that includes me) of the 100 oldest Internet domains.

 Topaz Partners reports on some recent research from Perseus Development Corporation which found that 56% of bloggers are female. I estimate that the current PR blog gender balance is 90-10 in favor of males, which given the make up of our profession is very poor.  Lot’s more work to do there.

 Finally, is it just me or in the past week have bloggers become more opinionated, more argumentative? Nothing wrong with that, it seems the temperature is rising….