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Some thoughts and opinions on the Public Relations profession and industry
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2/26/2004
PR Opinions (http://www.natterjackpr.com)
This is the old site for PR Opinions and is not updated. You can find PR Opinions at http://www.natterjackpr.com. Thanks Tom 2/06/2004
For most PR people, media relations remains an important part of the job. Getting a client in front of an influential editor still gets the blood pressure rising. But what about when the tables are turned? What about journalists who want to try and land an interview with a big fish? Tom Mangan points to a story in MediaBistro that gives advice on how a "no-name" journalist can get an interview with the big name. "Earlier this year, I was having trouble scoring an interview with Senator John Kerry for an article I was writing about him. My chances decreased even more when he went into the hospital for a prostate operation. I put together a list of quotes from people?including the editorial director of a competing publication?vouching for my ability to get the story straight. The next quote I got was from Kerry's hospital room."
2/05/2004
It's said that Steve Jobs has a "reality distortion field" around him. In effect, when you're in his presence, his ideas seem to make perfect sense and you ignore any plausible issues regarding the potential success of said ideas. I know a few people with a similar skill. When you listen to them, the only thing that stops you from agreeing that a bridge from South Africa to Brazil is a fantastic idea. Think to the tourism.... is that you know the power of their persuasion. What has this got to do with PR? Well give me a chance. I have noticed that in the past two weeks the Internet meme of choice has been "social networking". I've been getting a reasonable volume of networking requests all of a sudden. Now, I know these "social networking" websites, where you can connect with friends and/or colleagues, have been around for quite a while, but in the past couple of weeks they seem to have taken off. For anyone unfamiliar with these sites, you sign up to the service (normally free at this stage), then you invite your friends and colleagues to join up and link with you. The clever part is that when your contacts join the network they bring a whole range of other people on board and in a short space of time there is a massive network of people. Ultimately, the theory goes, that you can then use the network to keep up with people or you can use it to try and drive some business through this virtual network. OK? Seems like a fairly good idea. But what if there are forty of these networks? Do you have to manage forty subscriptions? This is where the reality distortion filed kicks in. You see (notice my seamless link to my introduction) I think the Internet's "reality distortion field" is the most powerful of all. We live in the time of "Now". We don't want to wait, we want it and we want it now. As a result people get excited by new developments without considering their downside or their potential barriers. I have joined some of the networks and indeed have re-connected with past colleagues and clients. But it'll be interesting to see how they fare in the longer term. Of course in a business such as PR, where relationships are very important, these tools could help..... could. It seems to me that the Internet, because of it's scale and speed, is creating an environment where innovation takes off and a certain audience (gadget nerds like me for example) get all excited. But this happens independent of the normal population, who may or may not adopt the idea in three years time. Take Blogs as a perfect illustration of this conundrum. Very popular online and still growing, but probably not Main Street USA just yet. This new "adopter audience" is growing and they (we?) clearly enjoy their role as guinea pigs. It might represent an interesting new sub-audience for many companies. I hope you enjoyed my free-brain ramble.... it's been one of those weeks.. More on Social Networks*:
*There's a lot of hype around Orkut at the moment. Firstly it's affiliated with Google, therefore instant buzz! and secondly it's invitation only. You can't just sign-up like the other networking communities (see below) you have to wait until your asked. It's the the online equivalent of the Freemasons I suppose. Links to some Social Networks:
2/04/2004
MarketingSherpa has released its Annual free e-book, "Marketing Wisdom" which includes 99 tips and stories from Marketers including PR Pros. It's a free download. "In today's highly competitive PR environment, cutting to the chase seems to be the rule of thumb for our small company. No longer do media outlets, at least on our level, get gift baskets or trinkets. They get hard news about our progress and programs... and news. And that seems to work great." Robert Peterson, Founder, AlmostGolf.com 2/03/2004
I am delighted to discover a new PR blog, "Luna Cafe" which will address: "Thoughts on P.R., Entertainment, Fashion, Travel, and Life". The blog is being run by Lisa Torch at DFMPR. 2/02/2004
I have spent a lot of time today clearing out my Qurb folder of Spam. Nothing new there. It's the same every morning. I probably get around 400 spam messages overnight, every night. With that volume of spam, I have to rely on the subject line to decide whether to hit the delete button or not. E-mails that have blank subjects or have subjects such as "Hi", "Hello", "Information for you" etc. are deleted. There have been a number of e-mails that I've deleted recently from friends because of the subject line. I'm sure this is the same for everyone. This subject line descision making underlines the importance of thinking clearly about the subject of your e-mail. If your e-mail looks like spam it'll be deleted. It's worth taking half a minute to think about that when you're sending an important e-mail to a new contact. According to the Senate Office of Public Records there were over 25,000 lobbyists in 2003 up from 21,000 the year before. The Washington Post takes a look at how the lobbying business is growing and why its presence, in such large numbers, in Washington D.C. makes it the PR capital of the United States.... An internal memo from the head of public affairs and marketing for the Health Insurance Commission in Australia has told staff to ensure they are not seen or photographed cutting a cake with the health organization's logo on it, to avoid potential captions such as: "Putting the knife into medicare". The memo reads: "If you are organising an event for a local member, please ensure that he/she does not put a 'knife into Medicare' by cutting a cake. . . take it away (out the back) after the candles are blown out (if you want candles) and cut it up . . . away from any cameras." Stories like this help me remember why I'm happy (most of the time) that I work in tech PR....
One of the more popular PR stories doing the rounds in the past few days has been the launch of a PR campaign in Minneapolis to curb (ahem) public urination. I am not taking the p... OK I'll avoid the obvious. "Among the poster slogans they are considering is "Go before you go," aimed at tavern customers who relieve themselves in public." Thanks to Trevor Cook. 2/01/2004
Jim Horton is the keeper of that most excellent of online PR link resources Online-PR.
Jim is also writes one of the most honest and interesting of daily PR blogs.
Jim has been "blogging" for quite some time using HTML pages which makes it hard to link or navigate previous posts. He has finally made the step to full-blown blogging software and his blog can now be found at: http://online-pr.blogspot.com/. It's recommended. Dogbert nicely sums up our discussion earlier this week on the empty promises sometimes offered in the quest for new PR accounts....
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