It's the communication stupid…

Dan Gillmor recently received a blundering PR pitch on behalf of a company that offers online monitoring services.

One of their pitch “ideas” to Dan was:

“What F1000 Companies are doing to take action against bloggers”

The post includes loads of comments from Dan’s readers covering blogs, PR, journalism and a combination of all three.  Many of the comments try to re-iterate the standard steroypes of journalists, public relations pros and bloggers.

It’s a great illustration of the common misperceptions that plague this subject.

So here’s my take.

Public Relations is about the PUBLIC

PR does not stand for press relations.  Just because that’s the high profile element does not mean it’s true.  If you are conducting PUBLIC relations campaigns and programs that are aimed at helping organizations achieve specific objectives, you’ll soon realize that while the media are very important, they are one constituent.  Effective PR also reaches out to staff, partners, customers, prospects, analysts, distributors, friends and family, regulators, industry bodies, investors, the local community and yes even bloggers.

Blogging is not THE conversation

Blogging provides a great means of communication.  It can provide a useful means of engaging with your audience in a more personal manner.  It can stimulate debate.  Reaching out to bloggers can help reach your audience.  But guess what, there are other conversations you need to have as well.  You need to build dialogue with journalists, analysts, staff etc.  These conversations will NOT all happen through weblogs. Blogging promotes good discipline on how to communicate in a more personal manner. But if you are only promoting conversation through blogs then you are missing the point.  The widely respected Cluetrain Manifesto pre-dated blogging and it covered all facets of communication.

Revenge and leverage are yesterday’s tactics

The changes in how people receive, use and share information affects every element of a Public Relations campaign. The re-emerging art of conversation provides a fantastic opportunity to re-engage audiences.  Conversation is not exclusive to good news.  In fact, conversation can often be most effective when dealing with problematic or contentious relationships. For example, organizations often publicly keep score with journalists or analysts they believe have treated them unfairly.  Does that make the situation better? Does that solve the problem? No. Building a conversation with your adversaries, addressing their issues is the best way forward.  There will always be battles you simply can’t win, but at least be engaging in open dialogue you give yourself a chance of turning a bad situation to your advantage.

Control is mis-understood

Controlling any audience these days is fast becoming a myth. The free flow of information, the advent of independent bloggers and the pressures on journalists and analysts are fast making control the PR equivalent of Atlantis. It’s a great idea but you’ll never get there. If you approach PR with control in mind you will miss it’s greatest potential – connecting and communicating with your audience.

Remember the basics

Effective PR comes from solid foundations.  Get the basics of your campaign right.  Who are you communicating with? What are your communicating? Why are you communicating? How are you communicating? What are the problems and issues? Understand the challenges and the opportunities.  Tie your programs to your client’s business objectives.  These basic building blocks provide the best way forward for a successful campaign.

 

I think Dan summarizes these views perfectly in his closing comment:

“No doubt, what’s happening is messy. That makes everyone uncomfortable, especially those of us who grew up in a relatively centralized, top-down media environment. But complaining about it won’t work. Dealing with it — not as a threat but an opportunity — is the only rational answer.”

 

Footnote:

 

Talking about the elephant in the room….

Nope it’s not a political post, the elephant we’re talking about (or not talking about) is PR measurement.

The last great unconquered area of Public Relations.

However there may be some good news in the area of media relations measurement.

KD Paine & Partners have just released a new service called the DIY Dashboard that promises to provide media relations measurement for $50 a month.

The DIY Dashboard system starts with an in-depth consultation with KDPaine & Partners to define the specific metrics that you want to track. KDPaine & Partners developers then customize the application to produce data based on those specific metrics.

If you have your own clips, you can start entering data right away and produce a performance report in minutes. If you don�t have the clips, you can import data from Factiva, Nexis, CustomScoop, Cyberalert or any other XML feed. You then code the clips and instantly produce the requisite charts.

How do you know you've already arrived?

It’s probably fair to say that you know you’ve arrived when you bring along two of your friends to keynote at your industry’s premier event and they both attract standing room only crowds.

That was Howard Rubenstein’s achievement at the PRSA’s 2004 conference in New York which finished up yesterday. His friends Larry King and Donald Trump regaled packed auditorium’s with their take on Public Relations. Rubenstein’s longevity in this business alone, he celebrates fifty years this year, is an achievement. But his influence, his success and his committment to pro-bono projects is a credit to him.

PR Week has great coverage from the event.

They cover Larry King’s talk:

King dismissed the notion that PR people are bothersome to or unwelcome by journalists. “I think they’re valuable to broadcasters,” King said, to an applauding audience. “Some of my best moments have come from a guest pitched by a PR person.”

And they have a very interesting story on Donald Trump’s session and his ten tips for success. I’m sure number nine is very relevant for most of us….

1) Stay focused.
2) Think big: “Go for the big client. Go for the big reputation.”
3) Enjoy what you do – or you won’t be good at it.
4) Never give up: “If there’s a concrete wall in front of you, you have to go through that wall.”
5) Be (a little) paranoid; even your friends will walk all over you to get ahead.
6) Momentum: “You have to know when you’ve lost your momentum. Don’t expect anyone to be on your side.”
7) Be lucky. Some people are naturally lucky, but luck also comes to those who work hard.
8) Get even: “If someone gets you, get them back. They’ll learn their lesson if you know what you’re doing.”
9) Always have a prenuptial agreement.
10) To be a winner, you have to think like a winner

Footnote:

  • You can hear a short audio interview with Rubenstein at the PRSA conference where he shares his views on how PR has changed over the past fifty years here (MP3)
  • Many many years ago, I attended a meeting in Rubenstein’s offices in New York, not to meet with him you understand, just attend a meeting! I was struck by the marked difference in the layout and atmosphere of their office compared to the high-tech PR agency environments I was used to at the time.

Managing e-mail – upwards and downwards…

Anything that helps to make the daily deluge of e-mail more effective is worthwhile.

Stever Robbins offers some ways to make e-mail more effective.

This suggestions will go down well with your boss 🙂

If you are constantly copied on things, begin replying to e-mails that aren’t relevant with the single word: “Relevant?” Of course, you explain that this is a favor to them. Now, they can learn what is and isn’t relevant to you. Beforehand, tell them the goal is to calibrate relevance, not to criticize or put them down and encourage them to send you relevancy challenges as well. Pretty soon, you’ll be so well trained you’ll be positively productive!

Footnote:

Link courtesy of the excellent Online Business Networks blog.

The advent of Flackster…

Long-time blogging PR maestro Michael O’Connor Clarke, who among other things was the first PR pro to have a speaking slot at a major blogging conference, has kicked off a new blog venture, Flackster.

It’s part of the Corante stable of blogs which deal with areas from venture capital to e-business and communications.

Michael’s mission statement for the new blog is:

Flackster explores, through the voices of PR professionals, journalists, cultural commentators and others, how the rapid rise of social media and participatory journalism is impacting both the business of news reporting and the role of public relations.

Michael’s always worth a read.

PR is never forgetting the basics….

I was talking with a former colleague of mine over the past couple of days.  She was faced with a major problem. 

If you’ve worked in PR for a while you’ll have experienced the sinking feeling in your stomach when your boss or your boss’ boss holds up a magazine and thinly veiling their anger asks “why aren’t we in this industry round-up?”.

It’s a nightmare, but it happens.

My friend’s problem was more acute.  While magazines move on and you can begin to address the issue immediately, analyst research reports have a much longer shelf-life. If you’re not in the analyst report that’s bad, if it’s a negative analyst report that’s a whole lot worse. Analysts are important in the technology business.  Not just for their reports, but because companies submit enquiries and base (at least part of ) their purchase decisions on their opinions.

Now of course dear reader, you are well aware that one of the major differences between PR and advertising is control. PR can’t guarantee results.  You’ll never see an Ad professional carefully opening a magazine to see if the ad made it!

The upside of PR (and the downside for a PR person’s mental health) is that analysts and journalists make up their own minds and as a result are more trusted sources.

The trick is to work bloody hard to make sure you are reaching and building conversations and relationships with the journalists and analysts covering your market.  That sounds like common sense, but often it gets lost in translation.

My friend’s firm was focused on briefing the most senior analysts covering their industry.  The firm’s executives weren’t interested in “junior” (their term not mine) analysts.  Unfortunately it was one of these analysts who wrote the report.

It’s a timely reminder for all of us that Public Relations is a complex discipline. It involves anyone that will influence your audience and your programs should reflect that. While it might be nice for your execs to be mixing with the headliners, it will be of little commercial value if you ignore the people actually doing the work.

Start with the foundations. Once your program is built from the ground up you’ll minimize the risk of these issues. Of course you’ll never remove them.  For that you need to buy the advert…..

 

Hands-on blogging: New Communications Forum 2005

Speaking of reality, Elizabeth Albrycht and Guillaume du Gardier have announced  New Communications Forum 2005, a two day hands-on event aimed at providing communicators with the knowledge they need to get a blog up and running.  This will include training on how to use the tools, advice on managing the blog etc.

The event is taking place in the US near Silicon Valley in January 2005, with a European event in France during February 2005.

This is a great idea, cutting through the hype and helping marketing communicators to get up and running quickly and effectively.