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Some thoughts and opinions on the Public Relations profession and industry
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8/30/2002
The Blog - A Corporate Guidebook... Deborah Branscum is back and has an interesting piece on "Blogging and PR", in particular on the dangers inherent on allowing employees to blog. She doesn't believe in corporate blogs: "the very idea of a corporate blog is an oxymoron. Marketers can learn much from weblogs, which represent a true-blue, kick-ass innovation in communication. But the best blogs are written by missionaries, not marketers." While I agree that there are issues to be resolved (or at least rules of engagement to be agreed) with respect to employees blogging on the corporate domain I think there are real opportunities. I believe a corporate blog could be a very useful means of highlighting what is happening at a company (particularly a technology company). The hyperlinked nature of a blog provides a useful summary and archive of what a company is up to. I think that 'corporate blogging' serves a much different purpose to the visionary stream of consciousness blog. (That's a bit of a mouthful). The corporate blog is if you like a guidebook to what's new. There might be a place for both of them.... Some housekeeping... 1) Rose Stein & Associates have recieved a new bid of $2,075 on ebay - though it's still under the reserve price. 2) I meant to link Jon Udell's interesting observation on Blogs and high tech PR so here it is, better late than never! 8/29/2002
When Spamming your customers is acceptable....why PR people gets LOADS of spam OK I lied, spam is never acceptable. But I have had the most amazing e-mail exchange with one of my suppliers. The supplier in question (I am in two minds about naming them) spams me semi-regularly. I got sick of it and sent them an e-mail informing them that as we are a customer I don't appreciate my company receiving three or four spams ata time pushing their services (that we already pay for). The response I got left me speechless... >"I am sorry for your inconvenience with our email solicitation. I > will speak with our CEO about your issue, but am not sure that it can easily > be stopped. You see, this isn't a email list driven campaign, where we can > simply take a name/address off of a list. This campaign basically captures > press releases that are issued on the internet, and attaches itself to the > release and sends our message back to the sending Party. As such, I'm not > sure that we can identify in advance of who is or is not a Client and stop > the process." So I e-mailed him back saying that wasn't acceptable, then I got this priceless reply: >"Tom: I completely understand! It's just that with this kind of novel >approach to soliciting new Clients, am just not sure that I can easily stop >the monster that we have created. When we usually grab things off the >Internet, I'm not sure that we can program the spider to differentiate >between who is or isn't a Client." Can you believe they are this open about spam? My most recent e-mail has informed him that if I recieve one more piece of unsolicited e-mail from him I will be reporting them to SpamCop. Unbelievable, but it explains why putting your e-mail on a press release/web site/ newsletter is a recipe for spam of the e-mail kind. Want to know the culprit? On a related matter check out spamgourmet for some disposable e-mail addresses and it seems fax.com has been hit with a $2.2 trillion lawsuit for junk faxes. Going once, going twice..... Thanks to Kevin Dugan who passed on this interesting link. Pittsburgh-based PR firm, Rose, Stein & Associates, Inc., have gone onto eBay to auction "15 minutes of fame". A PR package that includes "a strategy briefing...wardrobe makeover...media trainer...personal press kit...photo shoot...personal publicist" and most interesting of all "guaranteed exposure to at least two million people". Conditions for the auction include that you've no criminal background. So far there have been 36 bids and it's up to $1,776, unfortunately not yet reaching the reserve. But with eight days to go, who knows. I'll keep you updated on progress! A shamless plug... GoogleMail Last month I gave GoogleMail as an example of promoting something via Blogs. GoogleMail is a Web Service we created that enables you to do a Google search via e-mail (Simply send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with your search terms in the subject line). The only promotion of GoogleMail was via Blogs, no media outreach, no newswires. The results have been impressive with over 100 blogs referencing GoogleMail. One of the more techie sites completely dissed GoogleMail and created a hailstorm of heated discussion. In the meantime over 30,000 people have used the service and last week the New York Times ran a story on GoogleMail based on the coverage from the blogs. GoogleMail was a pet project that I believe has proved that communications is changing and many would say for the better! One word of caution however, while I believe blogs provide a powerful medium, I also believe that as more PR people try and influence them there is going to be some trouble.....blogs can be very personal affairs... so be careful out there and remember the basics of good communication never change. 8/27/2002
The Java battle gets really nasty..and that's just the publishers The publishers of Java Developer's Journal and Java Pro, Sys-Con Media and Fawcette Technical Publications respectively, have taken the gloves off in the battle for advertising revenue. Following an e-mail from Fawcette claiming that Sys-Con was cited for false circulation figures, Sys-Con has gone out on the offensive to address Fawcette's claims with a full press release response. It looks like this might get worse before it gets better. [More from Sys-Con on the matter] The Art of Corporate Blogging...what about some guidelines? As we know there have been a huge number of articles on the blog phenomenon, from general IT press, to the implications for PR. The blogging theme has now moved to 'corporate blogging' or how blogs will impact corporations, knowledge management and communication. Dylan Tweney has a good piece in Business 2.0. So now everyone's blogging inside their organization, what are the issues with regard to the company's liability for disclosure of confidential information, financial regulations etc.? If it's something you are thinking about, check out the corporate blogging guideline's from Groove's founder Ray Ozzie which raise interesting issues such as the impact of employees blogging during the SEC-sponsored quiet periods at the end of athe financial quarter and much more. When the PR becomes the story...you get two months inside The 'Celeb' NY PR Lizzie Grubman, who famously mowed down sixteen people outside a niteclub in the Hamptons and then drove off before being found by police two hours later, has been given a two month jail sentence and two hundred and eighty hours community service. Of course the repercussions don't stop there as there are also a multitude of multi-million dollar lawsuits pending against her. The Internet (as always) has all the details, here's the indictment and there's even a Lizzie Grubman parody site. Of course the New York media haven't missed any opportunities to enjoy her discomfort. 8/23/2002
Dan Gillmor, Phil Gomes and the blog as the corporate communications medium Interesting piece in Dan Gillmor's blog on PR and blogging. In the piece, which highlight's Phil Gomes and his recent article on blogging, Mr. Gillmor recommends that companies look at encouraging CEO's to undertake blogs - as he points out that corporate web sites rarely provide the information he and his colleagues are looking for in putting together a story. So he suggests blogs as a means of letting people know what's new at the company and on the website. Good advice. So what are the chances of your CEO writing a blog? Minute? So how about you as the corporate communicator managing the blog? Or for you as the consultant offering it as a service? Think through that one. On Mr. Gillmor's comment on Web site press rooms, the best advice I have heard on the design goals for an online press room is that is should: "Provide everything a journalist needs to write a feature on your company without contacting you." How many of us can claim that? [Comments?] Mmmm...I see from your CV... The PR profession draws from every walk to life. The varied nature of the different industries we represent creates opportunities for very different people to succeed in this profession and that diversity is a real strength. Yesterday, the British Guardian carried a story about a PR practitioner who has been accused (only accused) of insider trading. My first reaction was that given our profession's access to sensitive information prior to public disclosure we have a remarkably good record at behaving ethically. It's rare to hear of a PR person being accused of insider trading, in fact I can't recall an instance. But the story has even more color than I first thought, the PR professional in question, Tim Blackstone, has a coloful personal and professional past. He is the brother of the British arts minister, Lady Blackstone and he started as a PR consultant following a career in financial journalism and prior to that was a soft porn actor. Don't you love the diversity of this business? Further coverage at the BBC. 8/19/2002
Flash Hall of Shame #15...Chameleon PR Isn't that typical, no Flash assaults for weeks and then two in the space of a couple of hours. Just like our friends at Gnash, Chameleon have decided Flash navigation and intros are preferable to presenting the facts in good, ole, fast loading HTML. Flash Hall of Shame #14...Gnash Communications First new entry in a while, Gnash Communications a UK-based PR firm have used the 'spawn of satan' for the opening page of their website. PR not getting more credible with the media According to a new survey from Bennett & Company forty three percent of journalists do not believe PR is becoming more credible. Twenty eight percent think PR is becoming more credible. The findings are part of Bennett & Company's latest annual media survey. Other interesting findings: forty four percent of respondents rely on PR firms for 11-30 per cent of their story information and forty seven percent of media chose e-mail as their preferred communication mechanism. More information on the survey is available here. 8/16/2002
Edelman: To advertise or not to advertise (Update) Following on from their story on Edelman's decision to celebrate their 50th Anniversary by taking out an advertising section in Ad Age, O'Dwyer's are running a poll. Currently 78% of readers are against the idea. [More] PR and Blogging Good article on the PRSA web site talking about PR and blogging. It's written by the folks at Trylon Communications and includes a real-world example :-) Finding PR blogs There are a tiny number of PR-specific blogs on the Internet. Along with myself and Phil Gomes, I have found another, Kevin Dugan's "Strategic Public Relations". If you know of any other 'PR Blogs' let me know! The media (still) don't get the Internet Deborah Branscum's blog is back on-line following her move to Sweden and she points to Scott Rosenberg's excellent piece in Salon on how the large media conglomerates are still struggling to understand the Internet and the changes it has introduced. There are some parallel lessons for the PR business. Rosenberg in the course of the piece reviews David Weinberger's latest book which details the Internet's change in human behaviour and John Motavalli's look at how the Internet affected Time Warner and others. There's a great illustrative quote from AOL's David Colburn to Time Warner's CFO Richard Bressler, in response to Bressler's question on what advertising pop-up's were (in December 2000! post merger!) from Motavalli's book: "Rich, why don't you invest $21.95 in an AOL subscription and consider it due diligence." 8/15/2002
Off Topic (a little): The Tech Bust (Again!) I am sure that you, like me, had your fill of the doom and gloom of the current downturn and in particular the dotcom crash. However the Washington Post have an excellent four part feature on the aftermath of the tech burn-out in the vicinity of Washington DC. "Sixteen of the 40 technology companies in the Washington area that first sold stock to the public in the past five years are sold, in bankruptcy or out of business." 8/14/2002
PR and the art of talking straight MediaMap's Expert PR has a nice straightforward and common sense article on the benefits of being up front. It's writen by the folks at RML PR (who don't use Flash :-) Refreshing. 8/12/2002
Some reading for the new week... Business 2.0's David Futrelle has an interesting piece criticizing firms who are embroiled in financial 'difficulties' who keep 'spinning'. Brenda Clevenger has published the second part of her article on online PR over at CornerBar PR. 8/07/2002
No, we want you to invest in PR...we just don't think it's effective... Thanks to Phil Gomes who picked this one up. Edelman, the well known ("world's largest privately-held PR agency") has decided to celebrate its 50th anniversary by getting suppliers to pony up cash for an advetorial in Ad Age. Now I'm not a big fan of advetorial, I admit that, but this seems absolutely ridiculous. A PR firm with thousands of PR professionals, celebrating its 50th anniversary by paying for an ad in the advertising bible. Anyone spot the irony? Can Edelman now tell clients, "oh you're much better off getting editorial coverage than advetorial..what's that? oh yes well we prefer advetorial ourselves but..." This is all the more surprising given a fantastic piece of PR that Edelman executed a couple of year's back when they held their global meeting in Canada and got the participants to come up with marketing ideas for the brand 'Canada'. A fantastic story ran in the Canadian Financial Post. Looks like Edelman thinks PR's not worth the hassle. I'm sure their clients will be impressed. Supplemental: On the front page of the Edelman website they have a link to a webcast on "Marketing in the Post-Advertising Era" - oh the irony of it! 8/02/2002
ChannelEdge..Top marks for creativity...but where's the meat? I'm sure if you've been scanning the marketing press during the week you've probably come across the announcement of "ChannelEdge" the new joint venture between Ketchum and IDC. ChannelEdge's raison d'etre is: " a strategic alliance formed in July 2002 between Ketchum and IDC to help technology companies define and deliver winning channel strategies and communications." From the outset this defintely gets kudos in terms of creativity, but the more I read about it the more questions it raised with me. Question #1 What experience do the PR guys have in creating 'channel strategy'? Looking at the biographies there is no question but that these PR folks are very successful, experienced and capable PR people, but back to the question, if I am paying for consultancy I am paying for expertise and experience. Not one of these PR people (according to their bios) have worked in a channel role or inside a firm with responsibility for the channel.....eh, so is this a channel PR program? Now in fairness the IDC analysts do have channel experience...but Question #2 If Ketchum are offering channel communications (given they have no actual channel experience themselves) programs. Isn't this a standard PR service? Why do they need to create a joint venture? Question #3 What's the relationship between Ketchum and IDC? Does it stretch beyond ChannelEdge? What are the lines of demarcation that allow IDC to be an 'honest broker' for non-Ketchum (or ChannelEdge) clients? Maybe I am being cynical and even unreasonable, but look at ChannelEdge's "proven three phase approach": 1. Assess 2. Plan 3. Execute It's not really pushing back the barriers of channel marketing is it? My initial take is that this is a clever marketing ploy to sell some channel-related PR services - and in that I say best to luck to them. If they are serious about offering strategic channel counsel however I would recommend they head-hunt an experienced channel executive (or marketer). Talking about co-op funds etc. is fine in practice but in reality it's about more than a press release. This is a high-profile example of the PR industry's continued attempt to become more than PR. Can they carry it off? Did we get any coverage? Search me... There's nothing like a stuttering economy to encourage chat about bringing PR in-house. Though as an aside I'm intrigued that people immediately believe it's cheaper, sorry more cost-effective to build in-house teams, even though quite often it's not cheaper. As budgets tighten, all over the web conversations spring up about how to do PR and PR research on the cheap. The most popular 'tip' I've seen recently on e-mail lists and web sites is: "Hey dump those monitoring firms and subscription services, Google's news search engine is all you need." Pardon? Have any of these folks used it? It's a 1 out of 100 for accuracy, reach and depth. Try it out. Unless your client/employer is regularly on the news pages of the AP, Wall Street Journal and USA Today this search engine is not for you (yeah sure your client is top of the news every day...sure :-) In fact, people who can't afford clipping services are typically small and private. If you rely on the Google news search engine you may get depressed. So what's a solution? Well it's not perfect, it's not guaranteed to track every hit, but waaaay better than Google News Search are free consolidated search products like Copernic (or shell out $40 for the more detailed version) and manually tracking your key targets. Though in my opinion paying for a clipping service (online or offline) may be a better, more productive use of your time.... There is some money for online content... According to the Online Publishers Association more than 12.4 million people have stumped up hard earned cash for online content, a rise of 56% over Q1 2001. The leading revenue generator is Real Networks followed by the Wall Street Journal Online. On the downside the top 100 websites account for 97% of all revenue. You can read the full report here (Adobe Acrobat required). |