Washington D.C. PR Pros

New Blog - Whiteboard Digital

2008-09-21T13:49:00.004-04:00

I've closed the book on Washington D.C. PR Pros.

Head over to my new blog, Whiteboard Digital

The Internet: TV Guide Edition

2008-08-01T23:11:00.004-04:00

Window shopping isn’t easy on video sharing sites like Youtube. If you’ve ever attempted to browse around without a specific keyword then you know what I mean. The search and sort features generally aren’t that great, and what boils to the surface tends to be irrelevant no matter how you structure the search terms. It’s easy to be discouraged, especially if you’re looking for examples of a video content strategy for a client.

I’ve waded through the cesspools of the online video underbelly to bring you fantastic examples of how organizations are using episodic video in compelling and interesting ways. These examples range from channels on Youtube to full fledged video libraries like Fora.TV and SnagFilms. Some are of these examples are oriented around a specific organization, some are purely educational, perhaps a few will even make you wonder why you still own a TV.

FORA.tv

This is an incredible collection of some of the world’s top thinkers and scientists. Similar to the uber-popular TED Talks, Fora.TV brings together brilliant minds for discussions on current events, science, business and culture. With a wealth a content, visitors could spend all day combing through the different categories. The My Fora.TV section is an excellent example of how organizations can use co-creation to engage with users. This section allows users to upload their own content, splice it together with Fora’s footage, and produce a brand new program. Genius.

@GoogleTalks

Google has a reputation for snagging incredible speakers to come talk to their employees and now you have a front row seat for every presenter that’s ever graced the halls of the Googleplex. There’s over 400 episodes in all. Some notable guests include Noam Chomsky, Richard Florida, Salmon Rushdie, Condoleezza Rice and Bob Woodward.

Worldbank Channel

The official Youtube channel for the Worldbank. With nearly 20,000 views and 100 videos, this NGO is doing it right with online video. It’s not all boilerplate and CEO interviews. There’s video aggregated from all over world. The most recent video is from Here Comes Everybody author Clay Shirky. Very interesting stuff and proof that large organizations can overcome the common barriers to producing compelling video.

MoMA

Youtube channel for the Museum of Modern Art. A video content strategy probably wasn’t part of the plan during the founding of the museum in 1929, but like many organizations, they’ve evolved. Each video generally represents a new exhibit or project.
Hulu

In the “why do I own a TV" category, Hulu aggregates free episodes available from the major network and cable stations into one, organized home. While one no organization is likely to have a treasure chest of video content like Hulu, brands looking for a video content strategy would be well advised to emulate the layout, categories, and search that make using Hulu a breeze.

Citizen Tube

A meeting ground for interviews and discussions focused on politics and the general election. With over 1.8 million views, this represents a legitimate forum of discussion and one of Youtube’s most subscribed channels. With a steady flow of fresh content, Citizen Tube is also proof that post frequency is a contributing factor to building and maintaining a large number of subscribers.

SnagFilms

This is the brand new home for more than 250 full length documentaries from all over the world. Top documentaries like Super Size Me live alongside obscure independent gems, making this site an instant favorite among film and documentary buffs.

The real beauty in SnagFilms lies not in the free content but in the way users are encouraged to share the films. Each movie comes with an individual widget that allows users to post the full length movie in their entirety. on their own site. “When you embed a widget on your web site,” Snagg Films explains, “you open a virtual movie theater and become a ‘Filmanthropist’”

I’m going to stop here rather attempting to boil the ocean by providing every example of great video content online. Instead, I’m going to turn it over to you. What’s your favorite place for video content? Post a link in the comments section and if enough readers submit we’ll expand the list for a round two edition...

John McCain is Aware of the Internet

2008-07-16T14:45:00.012-04:00

That was the line from campaign staffer Mark Soohoo at a June panel, “Personal Democracy Forum”. Aides like Soohoo have the unenviable job of touting McCain’s ability to stay relevant as technology progresses at a break neck pace.

Earlier this summer, McCain admitted to not being able to use a computer at all, citing his wife as the conduit between himself the newfangled typing machine. [1:19]

This is the latest in a series of jaw dropping remarks made by some of the most powerful men in America.

The Washington Post’s report from earlier this week on the exchange between lawmakers and executives from Yahoo! and Google would have been funny if the implications for online privacy so weren't so serious:

At the end of a two-hour Senate committee hearing yesterday on Internet advertising and privacy, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.), who led the discussion, said the affair had chiefly served to emphasize "how little we do understand."

Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), remarked wryly that because of all the talk about "cookies" and other Web terms, he was going to have to "update my dictionary."

And Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) asked a question about Internet connections so muddled that apparently no one understood.

"I think I'm not entirely sure of what you are suggesting, senator," the witness answered.

"Nor am I," he said.

It’s 2008, how can we expect a candidate who doesn't use email to understand the basis of net neutrality, or online privacy?

How about the safety of children online. Passing COPPA is a great first step but these issues still aren’t going away. Case in point: watch the first five minutes of MSNBC’s To Catch a Predator (and only the first five minutes or your head will explode). Where do all of those criminal conversations first take place?

How can we asses a candidate’s ability to lead us well into the 21^st century without asking these questions? If elected will McCain's team haul in a complex network of fax machines into the White House?

I have more on this political luddite riff but I've run out of steam. More to come....

The Practicals: Planning a Complete Social Media Strategy

2008-07-07T08:36:00.006-04:00

(cross posted from 360 Digital Influence)

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start with social media. Giving birth to a digital engagement strategy that’s aligned to an overall communications goal while employing the right digital tactics can be, well, tricky. What if internal decision makers are reluctant to incorporate social media into the equation? How do you know which tools are appropriate? How in the world are we going to measure all of this?

If you’ve tried clearing these hurdles before then you’re not alone; we had over 500 participants join us last week for a live social media presentation – a great sign that public relations professionals are reacting to the changing landscape and eager for ways to incorporate social media into existing communications programs.

In an effort to answer some of these common questions, 360° Digital Influence, in partnership with BurrellesLuce, recently hosted a free webinar titled The Practicals: Planning a Complete Social Media Strategy. My colleague, Brian Giesen, and I covered how organizations can create strategies that go beyond just the tactics. We walked through the process we undertake as we build a digital engagement strategy to accomplish a variety of communications objectives, from building brand ambassadors to selling products. If you missed out on the live show, head over to BurrellesLuce for a full replay.

In addition to strategy, we also offered up a few of the tools we use everyday in 360 Digital Influence to monitor conversations online. If you’re new to social media and are looking for ways to jump in, be sure to check out the last section where we go through the steps you can take to get started today.

I caught up with Gail Nelson, Senior Vice President at Burrelles for her thoughts on the presentation “For PR professionals operating in today’s changing communication environment, knowledge truly is power. The webinar conducted by Brian and John on social media planning attracted the largest attendance of any of our webinars to date.”

The Practicals: Planning a Complete Social Media Strategy was the first in a two part series that Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence will be presenting. The next presentation, The Practicals, Executing and Measuring a Social Media Program, will be air live on July 23. Visit BurrellesLuce to register and reserve a spot. Until then, head over to our feeds section for the Essential 15 Pack – a collection of our 15 must-have feeds for anyone in marketing or communications.

Social Media Lunch Break

2008-06-24T20:30:00.010-04:00

Looking for the latest and greatest ways to monitor conversations online? Want to check out some of the social media tools we use in Ogilvy's 360 Digital Influence group? Then you should register for tomorrow's (free) BurrellesLuce Webinar: Planning a Complete Social Media Strategy.

My colleague Brian Giesen and I will be presenting an hour-long look at the ways public relations pros can integrate social media into new or existing communications programs.

We'll talk about the strategy and run through some real world case studies showcasing the ways you can bring a digital perspective into the equation.

It's tomorrow from 1-2pm EST. Log on for the full presentation and we'll be fielding questions via chat throughout.

Lunch meeting you just can't get out of? It's cool, they'll post the full presentation at the conclusion for anyone who missed it. [I'll link to it here as well]

Annoying Websites: Gigantic Stick Edition

2008-06-18T18:16:00.005-04:00

Here’s a quick question you can ask yourself when reviewing your own web site to see if you’re driving your visitors crazy: “does my site feature content that’s attached to a gigantic stick?” If so, all of your readers hate you.

A long time ago, way back in the ‘80s, librarians attached newspapers to wooden rods, presumably so that patrons wouldn’t fold up the Wall Street Journal and walk out. The newspaper section was a rare area in the local library where items weren’t supposed to be checked out. You had to sit right where you were and read the paper. There may also have been a functional reason, like keeping the pages neatly folded, but theft was definitely in the equation.

Web sites unknowingly employ the digital equivalent of this tactic all the time. Every day I come across countless sites that demand I pull up a chair, sit down, and consume their content within eyesight of the webmaster. Don’t get me wrong, I’m painfully aware that some organizations need to keep a short leash on the content they produce and for whom a strong Youtube following is not an ultimate communications goal.

However, there seems to be too many sites that fall into the murky gray area between strict web 1.0 control and fully integrated social functionality. These sites may be asking to help get the word out about a certain cause or for users to check out their new product. Yet these same sites deny users the ability to share content in three all too familiar ways:

1) Neglecting to provide the embedded code for videos. Copyright violations and organizational control seem to be the main reasons for this version of the wooden stick. My take is that if you’ve managed to get the video produced, edited, approved, and posted to the site, it’s worth it to take the next step and allow people to lift the code and post it to their own blog or social network.

2) Lack of RSS. Even static web sites make changes and add content from time to time. Why not allow interested readers to be alerted when there’s something new to check out? Certainly, RSS becomes more relevant for constantly updated blogs, but without RSS you rely on your visitors to bookmark or otherwise remember to periodically check back in from time to time. That’s a lot to ask. Seriously.

3) Sites saturated with flash. Flash is sometimes an interesting way to illustrate your brand’s personality*, but too much flash and it becomes difficult to share a link to a specific page. I’m much less likely to a share a link if I know my friend will have to sit through 90 seconds of flash before getting to the content. I never understand sites that go through all the work for complex flash intros and then offer the ‘skip intro’ option. If you create something so annoying you feel compelled to offer sufferers a way to skip it, isn’t that a sign? Sometimes when I land on a page like this, I start to wish for a FireFox Tivo add-on so I could speed through it without losing the look and feel of the site.

These may seem like minor mistakes but organizations guilty of these and similar offenses may unwittingly penalize themselves by affixing the digital wooden stick to their otherwise interesting and shareable content.

[*For more on brand personality, check out Personality Not Included. Disclaimer: it’s written by my Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence colleague Rohit Bhargava, nonetheless, it’s a fantastic book and I read through it cover to cover well before I started at Ogilvy.]

Site Review: Social Median & Tin Eye

2008-06-04T21:51:00.010-04:00

Here are two new and interesting social media sites making waves this week (in my book, anyway). Both of these sites are in private alpha or beta but don’t be afraid to request an invite and have a look around…

Social Median: I think of this site as a hybrid between Digg, where user recommendations increase the visibility of news items, and Alltop, where the web's top sites are organized by topic.

To create a profile you join specific news networks based on keywords (i.e. wireless, or apple) or join up with particular grouping of people (i.e. social media directors). Upon properly connecting your account to your interests, head over to your news feed where content will start to flow in.

In theory, of all of the news that comes in will be relevant to you in one way or another. Users can also create their personal news network by mapping their own social media outlets. There's not yet a PR Bloggers network. Maybe I'll take a crack at starting one. Any suggestions for who to add into the PR feed? Certainly need to start with some of my personal favorites PR Squred, Buzz Bin, Young PR, Observations of PR ...

Tin Eye: Brand new (still in private beta) visual search engine. Unlike Flickr or Google images that rely on tagging photos with keywords, Tin Eye uses visual search to find similar images from across the web. To be accurate, Tin Eye is simply the search engine, Idee's PixID drives the visual search technology. I signed up and received an invite within a day so it's definitely worth the short wait to check it out.

How does this matter to PR and digital worth of mouth practitioners? It's not simply one more tool in our growing arsenal to track down how our content is being used online. We've got track backs in our comments, Tweetscan and Technorati, but all of those tools in one way or another rely on the written word. Tin Eye allow content creators to measure how and where people are making use of your images, no matter how they're tagged.

Tin Eye is a digital bloodhound of sorts; give it a whiff of an image and it'll head out on the trail to hunt down the scent, ears flapping in the wind as it bounds through the Internets.

This will have a big impact new product launches as PR and marketers develop the ability to identify how images of the new product are circulating through social networks. When you get into the site, try a search for iphone images for an great example of this phenomena in action.

There's also a very real copyright implication. It's now easier than ever before to upload your company's logo, hit search, and find where on the web your logo appears. The results may surprise you...

Tin Eye blog

Presidential Profiles

2008-06-02T18:34:00.008-04:00

[cross posted from Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence]

Imagine waking up one day in the future, firing up your Facebook account and learning that one of your friends has decided to run for President. Not a joke announcement like so many faux relationship statuses or parodies like Stephen Colbert’s presidential run, but a legitimate presidential campaign in its infancy. Maybe the candidate was an old friend from college, an overachieving history major who headed to law school and then fell out of touch. And now, in between your tagged photos and status updates is an invitation to join your friend’s group: March to the White House in 2020.

During a Q&A session at the recent Converging Campaigns event (covered in a previous post), a panelist wondered when America would see its first candidate with an actual Facebook profile. Not a profile manufactured for the purposes of a campaign tool but someone who built and maintained a Facebook profile and then subsequently decided to make a run for the White House.

Certainly none of the candidates in the 2008 election spent their college days tagging friends and updating the ‘where I’ve been’ application. However, at some point in the next few years or decades, there will be a candidate who had a presence on Facebook long before he or she ever considered running for office.

I’m not as myopic as to assume that years down the road there won’t be an application several derivatives away from our present-day Facebook, but no matter the tool, the personal narratives we create for ourselves via social media today will stretch long into the future.

No longer will a candidate have the luxury of misremembering a dangerous helicopter landing under sniper fire or lay awake at night praying those incriminating photos don’t surface. That content will live online — tagged, posted, and ready to be shared.

Regardless of what may live in the dusty archives of news footage or what an old professor remembers, social networking sites will not allow future political candidates to stroll far from the reality; the uber-social Facebook-like applications acting as the biggest sticklers for truth.

I wonder who is currently Facebook friends with a future US president? Looking at my newsfeed from over the weekend, I’m not holding out much hope for my network…

Papal Pics...

2008-05-30T19:46:00.007-04:00

It's long overdue, but I finally got around to uploading my photos from my recent Papal visit adventure on Flickr. Head over to the New York Papal Visit set for the full batch.

As a teaser, I'm posting one of newly uploaded photos here:

This is at the edge of the blocked off 'media village' and also rare shot of me working. Note the sunburn, sweat drenched suit, secret service pin, and my need for support to stand upright. It was a long, hot day.

By the end the of the day, I was using the minute-by-minute schedule in my left hand to beat back unruly reporters. I'm joking, sort of...

All right, that's it; no more Pope-related posts. My next post on social media, its impact on political campaigns, and sniper fire, coming soon!

From the Depths of Digital

2008-05-18T16:52:00.012-04:00

Last week, I started a new job at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide in Washington, D.C. I'm working in the 360 Digital Influence department within Ogilvy's Creative Studio.

I have the privilege of joining a great team with varying specializations from online marketing, web development, SEO, social networking, print designers, the list goes on. With a grand total of five days under my belt, the 360 Digital Influence Blog will give you a much better sense of the department and my new colleagues.

I knew that I was joining the right agency during the first few minutes of orientation on the first day. Among the tax forms and the benefits paperwork was an official Ogilvy PR Blogging Guidelines Memo for employees. Before the list of common sense guidelines there was a paragraph that read:

"Understanding the nature of the blogosphere and how to interact, engage with others, and exchange ideas is essential an in our collective interest. This understanding is a prerequisite for providing meaningful and credible counsel for our clients...We encourage you to engage in this form of communication."

For me, this one memo in the collection of first-day materials was a great introduction to the creative, progressive spirit of the agency and a warm welcome for someone getting ready to jump into the Digital Influence department.

Given the blogging-friendly environment and the digital-focus of my new job I’ll definitely continue to post on Young DC PR Pros. For the sake of all three of my readers I hope my future posts reflect an increased familiarity of the intersection between marketing and social media.

Though, I sure will miss having the Pope as a client…

Counterfeiting Online

2008-05-06T06:22:00.002-04:00

You may have noticed the anti-astroturfing symbol on the right hand side of this blog. If you've never heard of astroturfing or want to know why anyone would be opposed to it, head over to the New PR Wiki for the latest on this campaign and for recent case studies.

Essentially, astroturfing is a fake grass roots campaign manufactured to give the impression of a legitimate public movement. There have been far too many cases of this practice, called anything from sock puppeteering to ghost blogging, and this week saw yet another jaw dropping example.

Students at Hunter College in New York were made to believe an undergraduate student, Heidi Cee, had lost her coach bag and was offering a reward for its return. Students “couldn't miss the poster plastered around the Upper East Side campus. Reading ‘MISSING -- $500 reward!!’ it was accompanied by a photo of a young, blonde, Heidi Cee, pleading for the return of her lost Coach bag,” according to AdWeek's Andrew Newman who broke the story yesterday. Heidi, apparently a social networking enthusiast, followed up her reward posters with Youtube videos, Facebook/Myspace profiles, and, of course, a blog.

I seriously could not care less about Coach bags and counterfeit purses so I won’t get into the mindless details of this fake campaign but…you guessed it; Heidi does not exist. And, worse the campaign was created by PR students in a class funded by a $10,000 grant from, who else, Coach.

If you really want to see how far down the rabbit hole this one goes, head over to AdWeek for the full seven page article, True Story of a Bogus Blog. After reading the piece I was reminded of why I support the AntiAstrotufing campaign.

I managed to catch up with the campaign’s founder, Paull Young, via email last night to discuss this most recent example. Paull and I agree on the need for a solid ethics curriculum for PR students in an effort to stop futures astroturfing instances.

“Many who fall into the Astroturfing trap do not realize that what they are doing is ethically dubious…This points to a need for greater education and discussion of ethics, transparency, trust and honesty.” Paull said. "PR students should be well versed in the difficult grey areas PR's can venture into with edgy creative campaigns, and the lecturers and professionals guiding them should be putting greater emphasis on the ethical decision making of their young charges."

Well said, Youngie. Hunter college needs more honest communications professors and less corporate-sponsored lessons in quesitonable tactics.

For a refresher on ethics check out Kami Huyse’s Anti-Astroturfing code of ethics, as well as WOMMA’s Honesty ROI.

As Paull pointed out in our discussion, the Coach campaign failed the Honesty ROI on all three cylinders:

"Honesty of Relationship: Say who you are speaking for (this was hidden)
Honesty of Opinion: Say what you believe (this may or may not have been the case, but failure to disclose motivation and identity make it a moot point)
Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity (another black mark)”

Early Morning Marketing

2008-05-01T23:05:00.018-04:00

On my way to work this morning I was handed a free Starbucks mug by a guy sporting the familiar green-apron barista uniform. It was outside of a DC Metro station and I was completely taken aback for a two unrelated reasons. First, the only interaction I've ever had with Starbucks has been when I've made a choice to enter a Starbucks. In my experience, Starbucks isn't an organization that you're likely to encounter unsolicited on the street, as opposed to, say, the Girl Scouts or Green Peace. Secondly, I couldn't help but note that this free mug promotion happened the very day that Starbucks was getting ready to announce a 28% nose dive in 2nd quarter earnings.

Maybe I'm just easily impressed at 7:30am on the Metro, but this mug giveaway really helped to deconstruct the narrative I had already developed; that of a company growing into a faceless organization in pretty serious financial trouble. Here's why:

The mug itself isn't too shabby, unlike most free crap, I'd actually use this. It's a full 20 ounces and looks and feels just like the ones sold in Starbucks for $10. That's a pretty big giveaway investment for a company that's not exactly raking in the profit at the moment. Not sure the scale of the giveaway - just at DC metro stations, other locations in the area.

What really drew me into the campaign was the partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation - their logo featured right in the center. Anyone that grew up in the greater Washington-Baltimore area as a kid remembers the 'Save the Bay' campaigns. These were the folks who spray painted 'Chesapeake Bay Drainage' on all the sewers and who came into the schools to warn children that everything from leaving the lights on to skipping math class would ultimately pollute the bay.

While I took the mug because I recognized the Starbucks guy - to be honest I was half asleep and secretly hoped there was coffee already inside - I actually became receptive to the message when I saw Foundation's logo. I opened up the mug hoping for more info and there was a note that read: "Bring a travel mug when you buy a drink at Starbucks and we'll donate 10 cents to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Plus you'll save 10 cents on your drink, every time. Together we can help save the bay."

I assume the creators of this mug giveaway were banking on Word of Mouth to carry this message beyond the few hundred people who received a mug. Sure enough, I went to work and put the mug my desk. Over the course of the day, no less than 10 coworkers asked where I got it, which inevitability led to a conversation about our childhood Save the Bay workshops and how much we'd love to run out and get Starbucks right now.

I don't want to beat this Word of Mouth Marketing idea to death, you get where I'm going: one simple mug got a dozen people talking about both the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Starbucks. In this case, the message resonated because it was localized via the Bay Foundation and delivered through trusted social circles, rather than ad dollars or press releases -- all with an empty cup of coffee.

[Update, turns out the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is pretty in to social networking. They've got a presence on facebook and have blogged about the Starbucks partnership]

Recapping the Pope's New York Visit

2008-04-29T06:03:00.002-04:00

Now that I've had a few days to get settled in, I'd like to revisit the Papal Public Relations post and add in a few more thoughts.

[Disclaimer: Event planning for the Pope is pretty old school, and as a result, I won’t be talking about Twitter, or the latest FIR on this post. No, this will be a throw back to traditional event planning.]

First, I've included a highly requested Popemobile clip. Here's the Holy Father as he leaves the Youth Rally. It was quite amazing to be so close and to have a free moment to snag the video.

This may come as a shock to some of my colleagues who, like me, faced an unrelenting torrent of questions, demands, and near riots, but this Papal visit has given me a newfound respect for the media.

Some PR pros are susceptible to developing the "us versus them" approach when working the media. I think our agency does a good job of working in collaboration with the reporters that cover our clients, but this Papal visit highlighted three aspects of news reporting that I didn't fully appreciate until this event:

1: Size Matters. There was no way on earth that every outlet could receive media credentials for every stop on the Pope's visit. Some of the events like the Ground Zero stop and the mass at Saint Patrick's Cathedral allowed for precious few media assignments. When it came down to it, the largest outlets often got the spot. That's not to say smaller newspapers, radio stations, and broadcasters didn't get access to high profile venues. Rather, the size of the outlet was a factor in the credentialing and positioning equation.

2: Hurry Up and Wait. As I described in the earlier post. I spent hours upon hours camped out, often in close quarters, with journalists covering the Papal visit. At one point, I found myself stationed next to two photographers. In an effort to kill some time, I commented that today must be hard on them since the media check-in started at 8am for an event that wasn't scheduled until 4pm - thinking the eight-hour wait was brutal for all parties involved. Nope. Not at all. This was their job, they told me. United Nations meetings, visiting heads of-state, waiting was common practice for these guys. They brought books and laptops and seemed legitimately accustomed to sitting on a marble floor for hours, after having spent the entire morning in security lines. All of this for a few minutes or sometimes seconds of opportunity to take the perfect shot.

3: Plan for the Unexpected. You’d think the actual bus ride from the hotel to the venue would be the one aspect of the trip that could be reasonably scripted: get all the media through security and on the bus. Ride said bus. Get off and find the Pope. Pretty manageable, right?

Well, no. As it turns out, the Secret Service escorting the buses to the venue didn’t check the route and we encountered an overpass that was too low for buses. No worries, we spent the better part of an hour backing up on the West Side Parkway causing apocalyptic traffic delays and attracting what I think were news and traffic helicopters. Fox News, with nothing else to do, blogged about the experience here: Wild Bus Ride to Youth Rally. As I think about it, I have no real insight on this one. Shit happens, be ready.

That's it for the Pope, I'll link to a Flickr stream, as soon as I get all the pics uploaded.

Papal Public Relations

2008-04-21T06:43:00.004-04:00

If you read a newspaper or turned on a TV over the last week you no doubt know that Pope Benedict XVI recently made his first ever visit to the United States. Our agency, on behalf of the Archdiocese of New York, was tasked with working with the thousands of media outlets that had converged on the New York portion of this historic trip.

As you can imagine, this was public relations event planning to the extreme. Months before the Holy Father landed in the US, we were working to field credentialing requests, process the approved outlets through the Secret Service background checks, and then assign the media to positions at various venues on the Vatican's itinerary like Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Yankee Stadium, etc.

I won’t bore everyone with the endless hours spent mapping out thousands of media assignments but it’s worth noting that the security procedures were so tight that reporters and broadcasters were to be assigned to fixed positions. That is, once an outlet arrived at their respective location – for example: USA Today at position 13 near the choir loft at St Patrick’s – they were not allowed to move or roam around the venue to gain a better angle or to interview passersby.

This was all in an effort to restrict movement in the moments leading up to the Pope’s arrival or departure. The Secret Service would institute a ‘frozen’ zone surrounding the venue. That meant no bathroom breaks, no running back to the satellite truck for fresh batteries, nothing. No. Movement.

Those that attempted moving out of their assigned location risked getting escorted out of the venue entirely. And, while PR people may have profound respect and understanding for the important role that, say, an AP photographer fills in covering these events, the Secret Service did not distinguish between an unruly member of the public and a top tier photographer angling for a better shot.

With those rules in mind, you can imagine the job of us ‘media escorts’ in ushering the media through the Secret Service sweeps, on the bus, to the venue, to their fixed position, and then standing alongside a contingent of media that spent the entire day reporting live and filing stories.

At night, after getting back from full day of media escorting, we went back to the hotel, showered, changed into street clothes, and went back out to tape down media assignments for the next day’s venue. This was the easiest part of the job – we simply were to duct tape down signs with numbers that would serve as a blueprint of sorts for staff and media the next morning. Compared to the long hectic days, the quiet nights spent shuffling down the pews in empty, dimly lit churches were almost as refreshing as sleep itself. Almost.

This photo is taken from Saint Joseph's Yorkville in Manhattan. As luck would have it, I was assigned an incredible position, in front of the first pews nearly 20 feet from the altar. This photo was taken from that position during the hours we spent awaiting the Holy Father's arrival. In the foreground producers make final adjustments to the lighting, microphone, etc.

This is taken after the Yorkville service, from the steps of the Church. In the foreground Cardinals mill about on the street. In the center, background, a 'frozen' media position of broadcasters positioned to capture the Pope's arrival and departure.

Photo taken at Saint Joesph's Seminary in Yonkers. I was assigned to a huge section of broadcast media at a Youth Rally on the grounds of the Seminary. The rally was about 25,000 people and included Kelly Clarkson as a performer leading up to the Pope's arrival. Here, on-air talent and cameramen wait for the rally to begin in an area that became known as the Media Village as a small city seemingly sprung up overnight as hundreds of outlets set up shop. Unnamed reporter catches some sleep in the foreground. Video from the same position below.

Taken from the main press box in Yankee Stadium.

Video from same position below. Note the radio broadcasters in the rows below me. My apologies for the jerky movements, the box was packed with agents and media. Also I happened to take this clip when a Spanish-speaking performer was addressing the Holy Father. Regrettably, I do not know Spanish. Any guesses at a translation are welcome in the comments.

I plan to write a follow up post touching on the lessons learned after surviving such a massive event. For now, I just wanted to get these initial thoughts and pictures posted.

End of Month Recap...

2008-03-31T16:45:00.010-04:00

--It's been a busy month for the PR industry as well as me personally. Stanton Communications, my employer, launched a new Web sit e.

--The Council of Public Relations Firms launched its new publication The Firm Voice, along with a great new tutorial for young PR pros called PR Quick Start.

--Brendan Hodgson of H&K gave a great perspective on Web 2.0 tools and their role within a broader communications strategy. As I've said before on this blog, sometimes it's easy to get wrapped up in the novetly of the tool without really identifying how this tactic may fit within the overall communications plan and how that plan aligns with the objectives of the organization.

--National Small Business Week is coming up on April 21-25 here in D.C. Check out the event web site for details on event in DC and NY.

--I interviewed the Director of Sales at iDirect - a fascinating satellite company that's working to bring the Internet to remote corners of the world.

--The 10 millionth article was written on Wikipedia.

--Steve Rubel called for (once again) the death of the term social media. He may be making progress this time.

--And finally, Hulu launched. If you haven't checked it out, do so immediately; it's quickly becoming my favorite site.

Not exactly the lamb-like ending I was hoping for, but exciting nonetheless...

Executive Biz Article on Newspapers & Web 2.0

2008-03-20T06:40:00.001-04:00

I'm going to break a blogging commandment and cross link to a post I wrote for the Executive Biz Blog. The article looks at how the newspaper business is evolving with web 2.0 applications.

Check it out here if you have a second....

Crisis Headache

2008-03-13T17:08:00.007-04:00

I was reminded of one of my favorite case studies in public relations the other day as I was browsing the PR blogosphere. For anyone who studied marketing, PR, or communications, the 1982 Tylenol scare was likely somewhere in the curriculum.

As Neville Hobson points out, Johnson and Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, engaged in "corporate social responsibility long before the term became fashionable."

If you've ever wondered why there's a piece of cotton at the top of most pill bottles, then brush up on the case here.

The crisis had all the makings of a communications disaster (or an A&E movie) : a police investigation, unsolved murders, a large corporate organization, and a massive product recall. For me, the takeaway is that, with the right processes in place, large corporations can act swiftly and transparently for the greater good.

I wonder how today's social media tools would have altered the response? Would Tylenol have posted a Youtube response like the JetBlue CEO as passengaers languished on the tarmac? Would they have worked with bloggers covering the crisis?

How could you use Twitter in a case like this...? Lots of questions, I'm not quite sure, how, exactly, to marry a 1982 event and web 2.0....

MBA for PR Pros?

2008-03-03T17:36:00.013-05:00

Many of my friends who earned bachelors degrees within the past few years have taken the leap into graduate school. As you can guess, many of these students were pre-med or pre-law as undergraduate students and so the transition into graduate school is a logical next step.

Though, for others, especially in the financial services industry, going back to school is an employer-sponsored perk. Recent accounting and business majors who landed jobs at global accounting / financial firms are encouraged to earn MBAs in an effort to further their career – many have some or all of their tuition reimbursed by their employer.

Marketing majors, too, with their subject-area safely inside the walls of most major business schools, seem gravitate toward MBA programs. It seems only natural that students with four years of marketing and business coursework seek out an MBA, especially if a marketing agency offers to help foot the bill.

When it comes to PR firms, it seems tuition reimbursement isn’t really a common benefit. This might be because no one is really demanding it. In fact, from what I can tell in working with communications professionals across a wide spectrum of industries, having an MBA, or any graduate degree, is hardly a requirement for growth. There seems to be a sentiment within our industry that the economic and accounting oriented curriculum doesn’t really apply for your run-of-the-mill Director of Communications position.

Now, as social media blurs the line between PR and Marketing, there’s a real turf war over who is best positioned to counsel clients in this space. Doesn’t it make sense, then, that Public Relations professionals, who so often preach the alignment of communications strategy to the overall objectives of the business, posses the requisite business skills?

The Council of Public Relations firms weighed in last December. You can read the full article here.

Any thoughts on this? From MBAs, younger PR pros, or those currently in grad school?

Future of PR

2007-12-13T19:06:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's been a while. I can't believe it's already December 13th. I've been blogging a fair bit over at Executive Biz, my last few posts have been on senior-level government bloggers and how the feds are adopting social media tools into the workplace. HUD is using Google Maps API, can you believe it?

Anyway, I don't have a brilliant post, just top of mind stuff....

The PR blogosphere seems to be thriving and yet there's been this series of land mines that keep damaging the profession. I mean, even the NYT times is documenting how ugly it's gotten. It's important to remember that not everyone on the planet listens to FIR or reads Luke's Observations of PR. For the vast majority, the only exposure to PR is when issues like these bubble up to the surface of mainstream media. I don't pretend to have the answers, but it sure is frustrating...

It seems that many of the PR gaffes floating around out there are from the entry-level folks employing the 'mail-merge-and-pray' technique. The solution, it seems to me, is to use both in-house education and undergrad coursework to encourage thoughtful communications online.

The next generation of PR pros is not going to simply walk in the door and have these skills on day one. Sure, they're digital natives, and they may not remember 28.8k dial-up. That doesn't mean they've got the skills needed to monitor the conversation about a brand/issue online, or the ability to identify relevant podcasts, or how to set up RSS feeds for a client, etc.

I recently spoke to a class of senior level PR students at a local University. Virtually no one in the class used RSS feeds and by a show of hands less than half had heard of Technorati.

Now, I know, you’re in college; you don’t have time to dork-out with authority rankings, but my point is that you’ve got a whole industry starting to fumble because the landscape is shifting so quickly and 99% of the incoming talent has spent the last four years studying the AP style guide and writing press releases. Those skills are critically important, but isn’t also knowing a how to write a social media new release….?

Maybe I’m just disgruntled because it’s cold and raining in D.C. I’d love some comments on this, or maybe just a great example of digital PR in action to balance out this admittedly one-sided post...

White Paper Interivew

2007-11-07T11:30:00.001-05:00

Just a quick post encouraging readers to head over to Foward, for a recent interview I conducted with Matt Shaw on his Council of Public Relations Firm's white paper.

The research is available online and certaintly worth a read for anyone working in this space.

Meet the Press

2007-10-31T18:20:00.000-04:00

Wow. This has been a bad week for lazy PR people who insist on using mail merge as a communications strategy.

Aaron Brazell, from Technosailor, outed a particularly clueless pitch from Guerilla PR.

Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired Magazine, was so fed up with unsolicited pr emails that he decided to publish a list of email addresses that had sent him an irrelevant press release in the last 30 days. Ironically, those published emails address will surely be harvested by spammers.

Entry level pr people are often asked to shoulder most of this media list building and outreach. What happened this week is a reminder to do your homework and to never just blast editors and reporters with what is essentially spam.

Rather, get to know your sources, what they cover, and demonstrate your familiarity with a pitch that's tailored specifically for the journalist you have in mind. Having trouble finding the connection between your idea and their beat? Then move on and research a different reporter, or perhaps that outlet isn't suited at all.

Maybe the only good to come of this is the robust debate taking place on the blogs and comments section. The Anderson posting resulted in over 70 comments in less than 48 hours.

Sun to Rise in East

2007-10-22T17:14:00.000-04:00

Entry-level employees are painfully familiar with the skyrocketing costs of tuition. The average graduate leaving the university with debt is not a new phenomena. This is breaking news according to the New York Times: "College Costs Rising Rapidly"

In other news, San Fransisco hosted the 4th annual Web 2.0 Summit last week. Lots of applications for PR pros.

Stephen Davies has a great post on Do and Don't for Digital Natives at the request of Paull Young.

Speaking of Digital Natives, I'm planning on attending a conference of the same name hosted by the Council of Public Relations firms in New York on November 8th. It looks like there will be a great collection of speakers.

I'm most excited about hearing former Clinton pollster, Burson CEO, and Soccer Mom identifier, Mark Penn. I've just finished his new book, MicroTrends. It's a great look at a variety of nascent and important demographics in our country. I've been offered the chance to toss out a question or two to moderator, Jeffrey Rayport, on behalf of young PR pros. Here's Rayport on the upcoming conference:

If you could ask Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News or Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Nielsen Online , or Jon Iwata, SVP Communications, IBM, or Mark Penn, a question as a young public relations profession, what would it be? Seriously. I have a blank notepad and my RSS feeds open. I need some inspiration...

Craigslist

2007-10-04T21:03:00.001-04:00

According to the Craigstlist website, employers advertising on the job boards can expect to receive an average of 51 replies per job posting. If that seems like a lot, you’re right. Compared to Monster’s seven and Hotjobs’s two applicants per posting, Craigslist has emerged an extraordinarily effective means to hire employees.

Sure, a huge stack of resumes on the desk doesn’t always mean an equally high level of talent. But what started as a listerv for local San Fran events has morphed into a formidable competitor for the other big names in world of job search engines.

Yet, somehow despite its polish, the quirkiness of the Internet shines through. Like in this job posting quoting the movie Office Space in the subject line.

Do Craigslist respondents tend to fair better or worse than from other jobs site? If utilizing multiple sites, would you be more receptive to respondents referred fro Careerbuilder than Craigslist?

eWeek link...

2007-09-27T11:56:00.001-04:00

Great article on "Digital Natives" moving into the workforce. eWeek reports that:

As these digital natives grow up, they're moving into the work force, taking with them blogs, wikis, mashups, RSS feeds and other so-called Web 2.0 social networking tools that will enable them to collaborate more freely in an enterprise environment, said Gartner analyst Anthony Bradley.

Google & Council of PR Firms

2007-09-26T09:54:00.001-04:00

Last week I attended the second in a series of discussions jointly hosted by the Council of PR Firms and Google. There was a lot of great information, but I first wanted to post what I thought was one of the most relevant presentations. It was called "5 Ways PR Can Participate in Youtube". This was just a tip of the iceberg but I wanted to share it since so many of us are being asked to develop campaigns that feature an online video component. I consider these videos launching pads and plan to explore other elements of the campaigns: paid advertising, search engine optimization, media relations, etc.

(The last two are Youtube Channels and not singular videos)

1) RESPOND to conversation about your brand. Example: Jet Blue. Jet Blue was assaulted in the press for long delays at the airport. Customers stuck for hours filmed the ordeal and posted on YouTube.

The CEO came out with a Passenger Bill of Rights and posted his response using the same channel. By the time the major news outlets were covering the customer outrage, the CEO response was already a part of the story.

2)START a new conversation within a community. Example Nike Zoom Challenge. Nike laced up NBA player Steve Nash in Nike shoes and taped him running a popular end line-to-foul line sprinting drill. Nike then asked viewers to try to beat Nash's time.

3) PUBLICIZE your brand or event. Example: Neiman Marcus 100th Anniversary.

4) CONNECT your brand to a cause. Example Bono & Red.

5) CREATE a Single Home for all online video content. Example, United States Navy

Hiatus...

2007-08-14T17:30:00.000-04:00

Readers of Young DC PR Pros certainly have noticed that I've been AWOL of late. I will admit, it's been hard keeping this up-to-date.

Executive Biz, the weekly digital magazine for business executives in the Washington D.C. has just launched a blog. I've been helping get that off the ground and I encourage everyone to keep an eye on it. We've got a great line of up speakers for an upcoming Web 2.0 conference in November. My blogging duties at the Executive Biz Blog will likely take up the majority of my web 2.0 focus.

You can catch me there posting with much greater frequency than I ever achieved here.

Though, don't unsubscribe from Young DC PR Pros. I've got a few pieces in the works. I recently spoke with Matt Shaw, Vice President of the Council of PR Firms regarding the recent Google Event and as well as upcoming events. I plan to post on that in the near future.

On a lighter note, I'll leave everyone with a video of one of my favorite things to watch on youtube: news bloopers. I can't get enough of them. There's just something so enjoyable about watching Al Roker lifted off the ground by a hurricane.

(warning: there are a few accidental expletives sprinkled throughout these clips...)

Can Youtube Save Your Job?

2007-07-17T23:22:00.000-04:00

No, it cannot.

I posted on the Jet Blue crisis earlier in the year and feel obligated to follow up with news that JetBlue founder, David Neeleman, recently lost his CEO post because of the "service meltdown" following a February ice storm at JFK.

Beyond PR 2.0 -- Event Recap

2007-07-10T19:37:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I attended an event in New York called “Beyond PR 2.0” hosted by Google and The Council of PR firms. I’ve included a brief report below and have included the links to online content discussed during the presentation. If you have a moment, I encourage you to visit the links as your read through the report; it’ll help put the discussion into context. The event was nearly 5 hours of panel discussions and lectures – needless to say, I’ve had to condense my notes.

Peanut Butter Recall

The event kicked off with a welcome from two employees from Google, Kevin Kills and Jen Bradburn. They both stressed the importance of utilizing Web 2.0 search and tracking tools. We’ve all preached the value of subscribing to RSS feeds to our clients, but the Google team shed light on this idea in a new way, specifically within the field of crisis communications.

The recent recall of Peter Pan peanut butter served as a great example. As the story broke, consumers flocked to search engines looking for more information. Almost instantaneously, companies looking to capitalize on the mass panic began targeting relevant keywords. As a result, users entering in “peanut butter lawsuit” in Google’s search engine found not only the results they were looking for, but also a variety of sponsored links from lawyers offering representation for those sickened by the product.

This example surely falls more into the category of advertising than public relations, but it’s an important tactic to understand. It stresses the importance that public relations pros utilize search engines not only as a means to monitor breaking news, but also to communicate with consumers directly. The Google team encouraged public relations practitioners to target press releases, CEO statements, interviews clips, etc, directly to consumers by linking those company materials to key search terms. If lawyers are able to instantaneously connect with people reading about tainted peanut butter, then so too should the very brand in question. For more on how, technically, companies are achieving this check out Jen’s recent post here.

The peanut butter case above and a number of the other case studies presented all seemed to flirt with advertising. I think as we continue to sharpen these web 2.0 skills, much of what’s considered advertising will begin to blur with line with public relations since most user generated platforms are free.

Dove Evolution

Later in the lecture, we discussed the Dove Evolution campaign as another example of how the line between advertising and pr has begun to blur, especially as organizations utilize user generated platforms to share their story. First, if you haven't yet seen the video, it's fascinating...

Is it public relations, or is it advertising? Whatever you call it, the panelists used this example to stress the importance of research as a means to better understand audiences and how a video on a user generated site can be taken “on the road” and placed in a variety of more traditional channels such as TV and print.

What does all this mean for us? The future of all public relations campaigns will utilize new channels to tell compelling stories. Video, webcasts, podcasts – these aren’t simply items on a media monitoring report, but rather opportunities.

The Jet Blue crisis served as the example of how video is changing public relations. We watched two videos. The first was created by a Jet Blue passenger as he and friends waited nearly two days to leave JFK....

The second is from David Neeleman, CEO, responding to angry customers.

We then had a lengthy discussion on the merits of using youtube video as a means to commute directly with customers. After much feedback from PR pros in the audience we finally concluded that online video can be one useful channel within a broader outreach campaign, but if done poorly, a company video on youtube can backfire.

Wrap Up

Ultimately, the message from all panelists was that the value of collaboration and transparency is even higher when working with the new online media . As the panelist opened up to questions from audience we seemed to get back to the basis: use blogging search engines and RSS feeds to listen to what’s being said about your brand; when you post content online do so for the benefit of the audience, not the organization; create compelling and honest content, not PR speak.

More Links

Finally, I’ve included a list of useful links to explore. As you can imagine, the majority of the tools discussed were Google products. Description copy from Google:

Hot Trends, you can see a snapshot of what's on the public's collective mind by viewing the fastest-rising searches for different points of time. You can see a list of today’s top 100 fastest-rising search queries in the U.S. You can also select a recent date in history to see what the top rising searches were and what the search activity looked like over the course of that day.

Website Optimizer, Google's free multivariate testing application, helps online marketers increase visitor conversion rates and overall visitor satisfaction by continually testing different combinations of site content (text and images).

Rather than sitting in a room and arguing over what will work better, you can save time and eliminate the guesswork by simply letting your visitors tell you what works best. We'll guide you through the process of designing and implementing your first experiment. Start optimizing your most important web pages and see detailed reports within hours.

Google Analytics (GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Its main highlight is that a webmaster can optimize their AdWords advertisement and marketing campaigns through the use of GA's analysis of where the visitors came from, how long they stayed on the website and their geographical position.

Young Web 2.0 Pros

2007-06-22T13:39:00.000-04:00

It's taken me over a week to go through all my notes from the recent Google & PR Council summit. It was a great experience and I got the chance to meet a number of interesting people. More on that in a bit...

In the meantime, I just wanted to throw up a quick link to a really great article in Business Week on younger Internet users and their collective impact in the global market place. Headline reads:

Children Of The Web, How the second-generation Internet is spawning a global youth culture--and what business can do to cash in.

Definitely worth a read.

Google & Council on PR - Beyond 2.0

2007-06-10T18:27:00.001-04:00

I'm planning on attending this event in New York on Tuesday. It's hosted by the Google and the Council on Public Relations. Here's the summary:

"The Council of Public Relations Firms invites you to a special summit, being held on June 12^th in collaboration with Google, entitled: Beyond PR 2.0. Some of the topics will include using search effectively for your clients; case studies for online crisis management and consumer product launches, and measuring online campaigns.

In addition to Google and Council member presenters, Jon Iwata (IBM), Jim Nail (Cymfony) and Matthew Creamer (Advertising Age) will be providing their expert opinions."

Any other PR pros planning to attend?

Google’s Latest Creation: Blackle

2007-05-15T12:01:00.000-04:00

Disclaimer: This post has virtually nothing to do with Washington, D.C. or Public Relations.

That being said, I just had to share Google’s Latest Earth Friendly Creation: Blackle. As is in Google, but black. Blackle uses the same high powered search engine as Google but the screen appears black, instead of white.

According the description, this difference will save energy because “monitors require more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen”

In January the EcoIron blog wrote a post claiming that Google would save 3,000 Megawatts of electricity per year if users switched to the black screen. Seems like someone at Google was listening.

Not sure if I’ll use this app every time – it is a little harsh on the eyes – but it’s just the latest from the guys that brought us all of this.

Tony Snow Plays the Flute?

2007-05-14T12:45:00.000-04:00

If you’re in D.C. tonight with nothing to do head over to the National Press Club to check out a rather unusual battle of the bands. Tonight features White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and his band, Beats Workin, facing off against none other than legendary CBS newsman Bob Schieffer in what the NPC had dubbed “"Honky Tonk Meets the White House Wonk – Battle of the Bands”.

This event is the first in the series as the press club counts down to its 2008 centennial. Tickets are $50 for NPC members and their guests and $60 for the general public.

From the National Press Club Website:

Snow plays flute and guitar in Beats Workin'. "What do you get when you combine four lawyers, a realtor, a business executive, a press secretary, some oldies, a dance-crazy crowd, and a whole lot of fun? We're not sure, but we know it.......Beats Workin'," says the band's web site. Click here to listen to Snow and his band on YouTube.

Shel's New Book on Hold

2007-05-10T11:31:00.000-04:00

Don't hold your breath for Global Neighborhoods, Shel Isreal's anticipated new book. I wrote about it in an earlier post, but it looks like it won't be coming out anytime soon.

From Shel's post:

"But I need to face up to bread and butter issues. Being an author is not as lucrative as many people might think. Nor are the speaking engagements. In fact, on the fame-and-fortune continuum, I have been way over on the fame side and need to move closer to the fortune side, at least to the mortgage-covering side."

What other new Web2.0 books are hitting the shelves? Check out Neville's new one on Podcasting.

Corporate Social Responsibility on MySpace?

2007-05-09T19:01:00.000-04:00

A white paper and survey recently published by Fleishman-Hilliard and The National Consumers League points to web-based tools as the preferred channel of communications when it comes to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

As the divide between consumer expectations and big business widens, CSR, as a function of an organization, holds even greater importance.

Over three quarters of respondents in the survey rated American companies social responsibility as either fair or poor. These figures are not very encouraging. CSR takes on additional relevance when you look at the topics running through the news cycle today – gas prices, health care costs, global warming – all of these issues flirt with CSR in one way or another:

I may be OK paying $4.00/gallon at Shell, but you’ve got to tell me what you’re doing to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

I may have no problem with buying a $60 DVD player at Wal-Mart, but I'll wonder if the company is doing all it can to improve health care benefits for its employees.

The success in defusing this dissonance hinges on an organization’s ability to clearly communicate its stance on a whole menu of corporate social responsibility issues. In that way, the role of corporate social responsibility is often that of a traffic cop standing in that dangerous cross roads of capitalistic motivation and ethical standards.

Young PR pros with expertise in social media have a role to play in this dichotomy. The majority of respondents said the Internet was the primary means for learning about a about a company’s CSR policies. A quarter of respondents said they use the Internet, and specifically social networks, to do the same – that’s a 100% increase from one year ago and yet another way social media can help serve communicators.

Social media allows for transparency and collaboration (two important ingredients in a CSR strategy) in ways that more traditional channels fall short. Robert Manuel, the dean of Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies on social-networking sites and CSR:

“A majority of Americans now bypass television and newspapers and turn to online sources to understand the social responsibility record of companies in their community. And more and more Americans are viewing social-networking sites, where a company cannot control its message, to gather information.”

Good news for organizations already using the Internet to communicate corporate social responsibility messages and more ammunition for PR pros urging their clients to explore web based channels as a means to connect with an ever growing audience.

Check out the full study here.

(I'll spare everyone the typical mea culpa found in postings when bloggers return from unexplained hiatus and only say that I've been extraordinarily busy and have committed to posting with great frequency. It's great to be back!)

2007-03-07T18:13:00.000-05:00

New Survey Illustrates the Importance of Online Newsroom

Sometimes, it's easy to get carried away by all the possibilities with new social media. Some companies may focus too much weighing the pros and cons of a corporate blog while other PR pros may be too eager to launch the latest and greatest podcast without really considering their clients’ communications strategy.

A new survey, hot off the presses from TKE International text (no , reminds PR pros that virtually all (93%) journalists say it's important for an organization to have an online newsroom. Compare that number with the mere 24% of journalists who say that they "often" research a companies’ blog and you've got a stark reminder about the progress of new social media tools. While some PR pros, myself included, are eager to explore all avenues of social media, it's important to remind our clients what journalists want: an up-to-date newsroom with searchable text (no PDFs!) and access to press releases and the PR contact.

I took a quick look at Jet Blue’s newsroom. There's been enough written about Jet Blue’s recent PR crisis, I won't get into that here, but I think their newsroom is worth a look. If I'm a journalist researching the company and I see that press releases are divided by year-- 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002-Present-- I'm not real confident that last link representing nearly half a decade will be exactly what I need.

As Public Relations professionals it's our job to ensure that our organizations are maintaining a online newsroom that effectively provides journalists information about the company. This survey gives us the ammunition to make the case for a state of the art newsroom. Do this first, then worry about tagging your Flikr photos from the recent press conference.

2007-02-12T06:13:00.000-05:00

Advice from the Top

This is the second installment of my "Advice from the Top" column. Regular readers of my blog recall the great advice that Denise Graveline gave us a few months back.

I recently interviewed Richard Toth, APR, from the University of Maryland. I focused on younger pr pros, but this Q&A can really apply to any entry level PR pro. You can read this interview here, or over at Forward where the post has already gotten a few positive responses.

Thanks to Professor Toth for taking the time to speak with me. I'll work on meeting up with more experienced pros for future "Advice from the Top" columns.

I recently sat down with Richard Toth, APR, Fellow PRSA, and lecturer at the University of Maryland-College Park. For my first post, I thought I’d share some of the thoughts from one of my former public relations professors. Let’s jump right with some young pr pro questions…

What’s your advice for recent public relations graduates in terms of the some of the skills you find that young PR pros lack?

New PR pros and students need to demonstrate and follow through on basic curiosity about tactical and strategic communications — the classic five w’s and h on a broad and flexible range of topics. They need to absorb and sort lots of information, going beyond the superficial to ponder and position the “what if?” of situations. Beyond that philosophical big picture, I suggest students and new pros should:

Read, listen, observe, ask, write, edit, practice more. In a variety of media — traditional, mainstream and otherwise.
Take every opportunity for feedback and to explore and propose options.
Take what I call positive risks. Dare to be different, positively.
Network, collaborate, participate, mentor and be mentored. Getting started early in organizations — such as PRSSA, PRSA, IABC, their local chapters and members. Such activity can help with all of the recommendations above and below. Don’t forget personal, face-to-face interaction. Follow up with personal thank-you notes and updates. Add value to a contact and relationship as a deposit in the bank of goodwill — for both the giver and receiver.
Keep a file of and leverage ideas, examples, stories, contacts, quotes, testimonials, results, successes, experiences, Web sites, blogs, etc. Then connect them to each new situation, challenge or opportunity.

How can public relations education incorporate some of these ‘new social media’ tools like podcasting, blogging, etc. into the curriculum?

As you know, John, as a student in my class a few years ago — you are now using technologies and media that really weren’t around to teach in 2004. That’s why it’s more important for professors and students to know and practice the basic principles and theories with traditional and existing media and technologies, then adapt them as new technologies are introduced, implemented and fine-tuned.

The demonstration I use in class: You and your skills need to be fluid, like water. As professors, we can bring new and more seasoned pros and researchers to orient us to the cutting edge, but not dwell on what may be the latest technology — because it may change the next day, based on your situation, organization, client, goals, experience.

Finally, an interesting exercise is to project some best-case and worst-case scenarios for the future of communication and technology. One of my favorite sites for students to view a video and ponder for challenges and opportunities was recommended by one of our regular guest speakers in the public relations program at the University of Maryland-College Park, David Forstrom of Connect PR.

What are some of differences between starting out in PR in a big agency, small shop, or in-house? There seems to be a lot of debate out that topic and I’d be eager to get thoughts from someone who has had a variety of pr experiences.

Again, just as in technologies and skills — flexibility and variety are keys. I recommend a good mix of different experiences and environments, especially during the first half of a public relations career. Depend on professors, mentors, colleagues, your heart and network for specific advice. But never burn your bridges, nor walk away from any organization or client unless the decision-maker and you can say you did your best. Your individual reputation for dependability, credibility and trust is all you can take with you wherever you go. Preserve, protect, maintain and build on your reputation and relationships — throughout your career.

On a personal note, I encourage students and young pros to avoid limiting their focus to just public relations and communications. Learn the ops side of all businesses and position yourself to be ready for job and career burnout, cutbacks, promotions, demotions, moves, etc. Your careers and circumstances are likely to change more and last longer than my baby boomer generation. Know the business-side of organizations and clients, because you might want or have to do it. Be a generalist with select specialties to differentiate you from and for the market.

Finally, I look forward to students and new pros giving back at least as much — and ideally, more — than they received, for the future of the profession, its education, standards and practitioners.

2007-01-12T06:58:00.000-05:00

Monitoring the Blogosphere

It seems more and more companies have been asking their PR people, either in house or agency, to monitor what’s being said about them on blog postings, podcasts, You Tube etc.

I thought I’d throw up a quick rundown of three sites I find useful when I conduct this type of search on behalf of clients..

Podzinger – This site allows you to search for keywords within audio and video clips using speech recognition technology. It takes all the of podcasts and YouTube clips and allows you to jump-to a specific location in the audio and video without fast forwarding or listening to the entire file. It's still sort of new but this type of searching could revolutionize the way we manage of all the user created content floating that YOU create

Opinmind – Blogging search engine that separates results into “good” and “bad” categories. This is helpful if your client is looking for a quick snapshot of what’s being said in the blogosphere. It’s an imperfect system in that the software fails to pick up on satire and it also appears unable to rank the blogs by relevance so you get a lot of 14 year olds with blog postings that read: [Insert Client Name] Sucks/Rocks!

IceRocket – This is a pretty standard search engine, like Technorati without the muscle, but I use it for one reason: the trend feature. Simply enter in a client’s name and maybe their biggest competitor, hit "trend this search", and you get a pretty cool graph showing the volume of coverage in the blogosphere. Here’s Apple its recent Ipod launch:

Washington Post Bloggers Summit

2007-01-10T20:07:00.000-05:00

I was invited to a D.C. Bloggers Summit, hosted by the Washington Post last night. It was held at the Post headquarters over on 15th street, N.W. If you read any of the well known D.C. blogs you may have heard the buzz on this event already today. But hey, some of us have to work during the day.

Young DC PR Pros was in attendance and from what I could tell, I represented the only public relations blog at the event. It was ironic, to me, that one of the most well read print newspapers on the planet would host a blogging summit in its headquarters, but you've got to give the Washington Post credit for showing some love to the D.C. blogging crowd, and for the free food.

Here's a rundown on the Summit with my thoughts thrown in:

DCist and DC Met.blogs consumed entire tables and clearly were the big boys in the room. I managed to hang with the individual bloggers and chatted it up with some really cool people.

Washington Post blogger Marc Fisher was on a panel discussion, along with CEO of WPNI, Caroline Little, as well as Jim Brady, the executive editor of Washington.com. These journalists seemed genuinely eager to be there and answered questions and offered suggestions to a variety of Washington based bloggers.

An internet lawyer then gave a 30 minute presentation on internet libel law. It was about as exciting as it sounds. We woke up to the coolest part of the night: the Washington Post is launching a local blog directory and wanted to share a prototype of the tool with the local blogging community. Lots of cool things could be done with such a tool, in ways that Google search and Technorati couldn't manage to do at such a local, neighborhood by neighborhood level.

Lots of problems seem unresolved. Mainly, how do you determine the categories of local blogs as many cover a variety of topics. Also, the prototype included an 'in recent posts' section, leaving many wondering how in the world WaPo was planning on filtering the no doubt unwholesome posts that would pop up from time to time. There was a huge debate on API and an local advertising sponsorship program that seemed go nowhere so I won't rehash it here.

Even with these questions, the overall tone was one of love and not angst. The bloggers seemed glad to be taken seriously and allowed to check out a to-be-release Washington Post product and, for their part, the Post seemed eager to get our thoughts and even took infrequent notes throughout the event.

How does this all relate to PR? Well it's proof that the journalists and editors we work with everyday are turning the corner with web 2.0 communications. Internet savvy news sites are eager to get information that connects with this new platform. When I asked how the WaPo's internet editors, bloggers and reporters would prefer to receive information from companies they practically described a social media news release without really calling by name.

To me, this event signaled that traditional news outlets are ready for PR pros to communicate via the new SMNR, podcasts, and through social tagging and RSS feeds.

Check out more of my thoughts on the WaPo event and its broader implications on PR over at Forward in the coming days.

2007-01-08T19:44:00.000-05:00

I'm proud to announce that I have come on board as a principal contributor with the Forward Blog, a site that aims to provide an online spring board for new and upcoming PR professionals. I've gotten to know a few of the writers and they seem to be a great group of people.

I'm looking forward to being a part of this. Check out the site and add it to your RSS feeds. I'll be submitting my first post for Forward later this week.

2007-01-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

Mr. Israel's Neighborhood

Shel Israel is blogging about his yet to be released book, Global Neighborhoods. He has posted on the chapters he plans to write and has solicited feedback in these areas:

“I need your help in telling me..

Am I covering the right subjects?
Does the flow hold together?
What have I included that does not belong
What have I missed, that needs to be included.”

What a fantastic way to develop the newest blogging bible, as I’d like to call it.

What better way to showcase the idea that no single person controls the conversation than to solicit the input of the blogosphere on a book about blogs! Genius. I mean that, seriously, I think this form of collaboration could be applied to other countless other organizations who depend on customer input to develop products.

He, along with Robert Scoble, wrote a fantastic first edition and I look forward to reading Global Neighborhoods as soon as it comes out in book form. In the meantime, go over to his blog and check it out. Offer your suggestions. You could have a hand in shaping the book.

I've included below my own comments to Shel's chapter two and his witty and immediate response below:

Shel,

I love this in chapter 2:

"In organizations accustomed to forming opinions through branding campaigns, we now have a place where people influence each other and the key influencers are the most generous in what they give to the neighborhood, not what they spend on advertising."

So true, my only advice would be to make sure you restate what you said in N.C. = you no longer own the conversation. No amount of money can buy you a seat at the table...

Thanks for this, what a great way to collaborate.

Posted by: John Stauffer

John,
I forgot I had written those words. Thanks for reminding me that plagiarism begins at home.

Posted by: shel israel

2006-12-27T06:50:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to throw up a quick post announcing my membership in the anti-astroturfing campaign. I'm proud to be a part of any public relations movement that encourages collaboration and transparency over concealment and stealth.

I’ve touched on astroturfing in earlier posts, but head over to the New PR Wiki for a rundown on all things Anti-astroturfing.

Some of the most interesting elements are found in the case studies section:

• How Labour used its election troops to fake popular support - Gaby Hinsliff - The Guardian Story about Tony Blair's campaign team using astroturfing tactics.

• Sick lobbying is behind penguin spoof of Al Gore - Chris Ayres - August 5, 2006 - The Times online reports on the Al Gore YouTube? video and other cases of astroturfing

I find that too many public relations professionals who are new to the blogosphere instinctively seek to undermine the process by artificially inserting his/her client’s message into the conversation. This campaign was created in an effort to combat that sentiment. Every instance of astroturfing shuts the Web 2.0 door just a little further on our profession.

I had the privilege of meeting up with Paull Young while he was on tour in Washington D.C. He really spearheaded this campaign and we talked about the benefits of clients and agencies coming on board with this. I was glad to get his insights on this and happy to be a part of it.

2006-12-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

Taco Bell Hell

I was watching the Redskins beat the Saints earlier today and during a commercial break I saw a pretty good example of crisis communications in action. It was paid TV spot from Taco Bell.

If you've been living under a rock, Taco Bell, the Mexican food chain, has been implicated in a recent E Coli outbreak. For the past two weeks, they've been in the news as more and more people got sick from eating at Taco Bell restaurants. I'm still sort of new to PR but I have learned that you generally don't want your brand featured in between shots of an FDA spokesperson and E-Coli B-roll.

This 30 second spot seems to do the job. It's newsworthy in that the president, Greg Creed, is announcing what the Centers for Disease Control had just confirmed: the outbreak is over and thus the crisis resolved.

The company first took stock of the problem and worked with the U.S government agencies. THEN, upon the conclusion of the investigation, they acknowledged the problem, citied their collaboration with the FDA and CDC and created closure by echoing what the agencies had determined: the problem is over.

I think it would have been an easy mistake to make had Creed pulled the trigger too early and ran paid national TV ads during the middle of the outbreak. With no news value to speak of, the company would only be turning up the volume on the crisis.

I'm not saying communicators should only engage with their publics until after the crisis, but I feel too many times organizations get up on a soap box via paid advertising with no real news to report and loudly declare that “we're working with [insert related affiliated organizations] to resolve [insert crisis]”. That sort of thing seems to only add fuel to the fire. Use the PR department in the midst of a crisis and usher the president around to the main news outlets but hold the paid advertising until you can point to a resolution.

I may be entirely wrong on this, especially if you’re a big company like Taco Bell with millions of ad dollars to spend. But somehow, at the end of the day, I think my theory holds water. I’d be interested in others’ thoughts on the timing of PR versus paid advertising throughout a crisis.

Anyway, the Taco Bell spot was a nice break from the diamond and Lexus commercials that run ad-nauseam late in year during NFL games; as the name of my blog suggests, I’m not quite ready for either…

Social Media and Public Relations Curriculum

2006-12-14T18:55:00.000-05:00

As I read over the Communication Technology section I can't help but notice the report is lacking in the new social media category. I feel much more attention should have been paid to blogging, podcasting and other forms of digital communications. Here is one of the rare, explicit nods to web 2.0…

“New PR tools and technologies, e.g., podcasting, blogging and video blogging, RSS feeding, Internet conferencing, e-networking, interactive media kits and e-mail. The research indicates that all these tools should be clearly presented to students.”

Perhaps it was not the goal of the report to provide prescriptive suggestions, but I’d like to know how the authors suggest rolling these topics in the current publics relations undergraduate curriculum. I hear my clients asking for our counsel on social media news releases, podcasts, or advice on a negative blogger nearly everyday.

Not one of these communications tool were presented to me when I graduated just two years ago. Despite their inability to plan strategically web developers and marketers will begin to elbow out young public relations professionals if we continue to overlook these new communication opportunities.

I spoke with the primary author of the technology section and I’ve included his response to my comments, in full, below:

From Dr. Kruckeberg via email:

"We attempted to address these areas in the section beginning on p. 31, 'Communication Technology.' I was the primary author of this section, and I accept your criticism. You are assuredly correct that clients are seeking counsel (appropriately so) from public relations practitioners about the use of these technologies."

"Your observation makes me think that this section may not be sufficiently prescriptive, but it does–quite importantly in my estimation–argue that, '...(P)ublic relations practitioners must be the managers of how their organizations strategically use communication technology to affect public relationships' (p. 31). "

"Let us hope that practitioners' clients will be astute enough to recognize the limitations and inadequacies of web developers and bloggers, most of whom are not educated in public relations and should not be assuming these important responsibilities in relationship-building, and of course public relations practitioners–as you suggest–must not overlook new opportunities in evolving media technologies. Perhaps the Commission report is not emphatic enough and should have been more prescriptive in its recommendations regarding new social media. However, the Commission does recognize and appreciate the opportunities that exist through new social media." (end quote).

While I wish more attention would have been paid to the nascent social media tools, I agree with what Dr. Kruckeberg said--we must not overlook new opprotunities in evolving media technologies. Thanks again to Dr. Kruckeberg for his interest in young PR bloggers and willingness to engage with a new generation of public relations professionals.

Commission on Public Relations Education Report

2006-12-12T17:40:00.000-05:00

I've just looked over the recently released report from the Commission on Public Relations Education. It's refreshing to see a reexamination of Public Relations curriculum.

First, if you're looking for a perspective on the new report head over to Forward for Paull Young's interview with the report's two authors, Dean Kruckeberg and John Paluszek.

As I read through the report I noticed two topics in particular (this will be the first post in a series) that I think are worth mentioning.

Firstly, Kruckegerg and Paluszek lay out three different models of undergraduate PR curriculum:

Journalism/Mass Comm;

Communications/English/Liberal Arts;

Business Management;

As I read over the descriptions of each of these programs, I think my coursework at the University of Maryland consisted mostly of the comm/english/liberal arts model. As a corporate communications professional, I’m asked to know lot about certain companies. I could interact with the IT, legal, marketing, and finance departments all within one organization in a given day.

This type of interaction makes wonder if I wouldn’t be better prepared in my line of work had I been offered the Business Management Model. Don’t get me wrong, the University of Maryland’s Public Relations program did a fantastic job of preparing me for life in an pubic relations agency, but I think some of those more business oriented courses would have helpful.

I wonder how many recent graduates are in my similar position: a corporate communications professional with a background with a more liberal arts PR degree. I’d bet more young public relations professional are in that boat than the opposite: a non-profit in-house communications professional with strong coursework in business PR.

If I’m right, and there are a large number of young pr pros wishing they could more fluently speak with, say, the marketing and finance folks, then I’d be a proponent of universities adopting the report’s Business Management model. I’d be eager to hear the thoughts of other young pr pros on this one…

UPDATE: I caught up with Dr. Kruckeberg, one of the authors of the report, via email this evening. He had this to say regarding my idea that, as young PR pros are asked to take on a wider variety of business tasks, it becomes even more important to have a business oriented curriculum with which to fall back on:

"The Commission's research and analysis certainly support your contention, which is also implicit throughout the Commission report when it isn't explicit. Most certainly, you are not saying anything counter to the Commission's recommendations, and recognition of the importance of this business knowledge has been pervasive in the discussions of Commission members as they have prepared this report during the past two years. As an example of a public relations education program that emphasizes business as a critical curriculum component, the major at my university, i.e., the University of Northern Iowa, requires a course in each of these: economics, accounting, management, marketing and consumer behavior"

Thanks to Professor Kruckeberg for taking the time to shed some light on the business oriented curriculum and to speak with young PR bloggers!

I think this report is especially important to young public relations professionals and I'll be posting more about this in the coming days...

2006-12-05T06:47:00.000-05:00

Naked Conversations

I just finished reading Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. It's a recently published book on how blogging is changing the way organizations are communicating with consumers. I found that nearly the entire book can be applied to public relations as it relates to the new social media communications tools. This book could really benefit young public relations professionals who are being asked to build an expertise around new social media.

Most interesting to me were the many case studies presented in the book that showed how companies have used blogging as a means to navigate through crisis. After reading through those examples, I've feel I'm better equipped to answer clients when they ask about the pro/cons of blogging. It's nice to be able to point to a company successfully blogging and say to a client "see, this tool really works, even for corporate blogs -- if it's done right.

I say this because too often my clients begin to see how blogging could be used a means to communicate with consumers, but then, just as the idea gets some momentum -- it stalls. There's alot of hand wringing going on in the corporate communications world about blogs, especially upstairs in the C-suites. Certainly, not every one of our clients is a shinning candidate for blogging. But, in my limited experience, I've found that more often than not, companies who really could truly benefit from blogging simply choose not to.

As the PR pros, we've got to be able to counter some of this sentiment and this new book gives us the ammunition to do that.

You can find more about the book and the related Naked Conversations blog here. Thanks to Scoble and

Israel

, two icons of blogging, for all their work on this book. My copy is already well used from being passed around the office.

2006-11-21T20:59:00.000-05:00

Edelman, Wal-Mart

It took some research, but I was finally able to create a side by side comparison of the infamous Edelman creation: Working Families for Wal-Mart. On top the is the astroturfed site created by Edelman on behalf of Wal-Mart. On the bottom is a glaring reminder of the need to register your URL before you launch a website. There is so much that can be said about this, but I'll let the pros over at WOMMA host the debate...

More on this and some thoughts on Astroturfing after I can get settled in after the Thanksgiving break. Hope everyone managed to get outside the beltway and visit with family and friends.

2006-11-16T21:47:00.000-05:00

Advice From the Top

Earlier this week I interviewed Denise Graveline, President of Don’t Get Caught Communications, for the first in a series of interviews for my new “Advice from the Top” column. Thanks to Denise for her time and advice for the new generation of public relations professionals in Washington D.C. The interview, conducted via email on 11/16, appears below:

1) What advice would you give to younger PR professionals looking for ways to become agency experts on blogging, podcasting, or any of the new social media?

As with any new medium, sample it: Read lots of blogs, listen to podcasts, see what others are doing. Post comments on blogs -- with care, as your words will be public -- if your comments are relevant to the topic. And get as much hands-on training as you can. One thing I observe in teaching "blogging for your business" workshops is that PR pros of all generations need to catch up with these trends, but younger pros appear to accept the shift in technology faster. Training will help you get there with even more speed. I've even had clients drag their PR reps to my workshops to convince the counsel that a blog is needed -- don't make your clients do that!

2) What about PR students still in undergraduate programs? What topics do feel are not emphasized enough in your work with recent graduates?

Let me get old-fashioned here: Writing, grammar, editing, and critical thinking all are staples of our trade, yet I see PR grads with less and less command of the language -- or the ability to question spurious thinking. I'd love to see young professionals coming out of PR programs who can write and speak well, and analyze situations critically but constructively. Those are not the only skills that will get you a promotion, but without them, you won't go far. Even blogging is merely an easy way to publish writing -- if the content isn't there, you won't get the readers, no matter how cool the technology may be.

3) What’s one thing you wished you knew about communications or PR that took you a while to learn?

How to listen to the client -- whether the client's internal to your organization or external. You can only begin where the client is, no matter how good your ideas are. Fortunately, clients have a way of teaching that to you over time. Accepting that is your challenge, and learning how to bring them around is an art form you should learn....as well as being able to say "no" nicely.

4) How do you see media relations evolving in the next 5 years? Will the press releases still be as ubiquitous as it is now? Will journalists want to be reached in other ways?

Despite their ubiquity, I see less and less use for press releases or press conferences. But as a former journalist who took a "journalism approach" to media relations, I've always favored a phone call and sending over source material, or a fact sheet at best, to a news release. That used to be true only in rapid-fire breaking news situations, but now that we all live in a 24-hour news cycle, it needs to be the norm. Unfortunately, many organizations and firms use releases and news conferences as "concrete" signs of effort, rather than as effective tools. More promising: Using blogs as a media relations tool, particularly in short-term situations -- such as for a meeting newsroom.

5) Considering Washington’s focus on government and politics, have you found it necessary to combine your knowledge of communications with more of a public policy focus?

It certainly helps, whether you work inside or outside politics -- and it's important to remember why your organization is in Washington, typically because you have a constituency that needs to be represented here. When I first came to Washington, I was communications director for a large, nonpartisan scientific organization -- but had to work with the White House when the President addressed our group, or on policy issues as they affected our community. We might not take sides based on politics, but we certainly offered advice and had a viewpoint. Later, I served as a Deputy Associate Administrator in public affairs at EPA, a political appointment, and lived and breathed policy communications. Now I work with organizations of every kind, from government agencies to nonprofits. Most of the long-lived pros in town know how to work on both sides of the aisle, with professionalism and, mostly, without rancor.

6) Do you have a collection of business communications blogs that are a must read for you?

Absolutely. Robert Scoble and Shel Israel's Naked Conversations blog to see what's coming in their next book, "Global Conversations." Brian Brown's Pajama Market reviews model small-business blogs (and full disclosure, called my "Vegetables for Breakfast" blog "small business blog of the day" a while back). But I agree with Brian's advice to small business bloggers on virtually every score. And I walk my blogging classes through a series of corporate, nonprofit and small business blogs I like. You can find some of them on one of my blogs -- along with examples of my student's blogs -- at http://dontgetcaught.biz/webdocs/blog/dgcnews.htm.

7) Any other words of wisdom or comments on blogging, podcasts, PR in Washington in general…?

Take more calculated risks. Ask lots of questions. Get your hands dirty -- you won't know about what works until you've tried it. Get as much training as you can -- look at every job as a new master's degree. Work on a strategy for your career, even if it changes. Change it if it's been the same for a long time. Don't believe everything in your press releases. Tell your boss you need to take the next round of my blogging workshops, coming in early 2007; or bring your boss along. And remember that Washington is really just a very small town with a lot of hot air in it.

2006-11-16T20:37:00.000-05:00

New Column Coming Soon!

I'm launching a new column entitled "Advice from the Top" in which I plan to interview seasoned public relations professionals for the benefit of us younger PR pros.

Sometimes, all the energy and enthusiasm in the world doesn’t compare to the wisdom and experience that more veteran PR pros bring to the table. I’m starting this column in an effort to share their thoughts and experiences with those who are just entering the industry.

My first interview will be with blogger and communications expert Denise Graveline. She’s got some great tips and workshops for public relations professionals and I’ll be sure to share my interview with her shortly….

Stay tuned!

2006-11-15T22:59:00.000-05:00

Washington Post Newsroom Changes

Check out this memo fromWashington Post Executive Editor Len Downie. It's long but worth reading if you frequently work with the Post.

Highlights:

- Many editor and reporter positions will shift;

- General assignment reporters will be assigned more specific beats;

- Metro will be responsible for education coverage;

- Health, Food, Home and Sunday Style & Arts sections will be relaunched in 2007;

- Stories will generally be shorter;

- Greater emphasis will be placed on Web content.

2006-11-15T22:20:00.000-05:00

Blogging: Is Your Organization Ready?

As I’ve posted earlier, I studied under James Grunig, author of the Public Relations Excellence Study (among others), at the University of Maryland. He preached the value of the two-way symmetrical model of public relations and used his own research as proof of its effectiveness in the classroom.

Here’s a brief run down of some of the main tenets of the two-way symmetrical model taken from the 1992 Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management textbook:

Two-way symmetric public relations ...

requires organizations engaging in public relations to be willing to make significant adjustments in how they operate in order to accommodate their publics;
relies on honest and open two-way communication and mutual give-and-take rather than one-way persuasion;
focuses on mutual respect and efforts to achieve mutual understanding;
emphasizes negotiation and a willingness to adapt and make compromises;
seems to be used more by non-profit organizations, government agencies, and heavily regulated businesses such as public utilities than by competitive, profit-driven companies.

Many of clients I work with on a daily basis are looking to us for advice on how to connect with the Web 2.0 generation. Our clients know blogging has enormous potential as a communications tool. Many of these companies are eager to launch themselves into the blogosphere, but nearly all of them struggle to adapt to some or all of the points of two-way symmetrical model of public relations.

Blogging seems to be the new litmus test in determining whether or not organizations can become excellent communicators. Earlier generations of PR pros who wanted to adhere to this model may have conducted focus groups or held speakers bureaus to get real feedback from consumers. Now it’s the blogs serve as the vehicle.

When clients ask our firm whether or not they should respond to or start a blog I simply point to a theory developed over 20 years ago and ask:

“Blogs will ‘require organizations engaging in public relations to be willing to make significant adjustments in how they operate in order to accommodate their public’ is your organization ready….?

2006-11-13T23:07:00.000-05:00

Madison Avenue meets White House

I recently came across this piece in The New Yorker and many a misguided advertising campaign came to mind.....

"So what you have is not 'stay the course', but, in fact, a study in constant motion."
—Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, October 23rd.

A strategy room, the White House. Two senior-level Presidential strategists sit with two Madison Avenue creatives.

STRATEGIST 1: Thank you for coming.

MAD MAN 1: Excited to be here.

MAD MAN 2: There are guys on the roof with guns.

STRATEGIST 2: We know.

STRATEGIST 1: We’re here to talk messaging.

MAD MAN 1: “Stay the course.”

STRATEGIST 1: Please don’t use those words again in this building.

STRATEGIST 2: Tang? We have Tang and Chips Ahoys over on the credenza if anyone wants. Please help yourself.

STRATEGIST 1: What’s our message? That’s a rhetorical question to myself. The message is, in broad strokes, “We know the course, we’ve seen the course, we’ve been on the course many, many times, but the course has changed a little, in part because it’s a very big course and it’s almost impossible to keep an eye on the whole course and this kind of funny thing happened while we looked away for a minute or were out of town, say, or went on vacation for a while, and what happened was someone—unbeknownst to us and, frankly, without the proper permit—built, like, a detour in the course that took people off course and led them, quite by accident, to, like, a huge bomb factory, but we’re working to shut that bomb factory down and reroute the course back to the original course, which, you have to trust us, goes by some wonderful scenery.” We need that in four words.

STRATEGIST 2: Without the literal mention of the words “bomb,” “factory,” or “stay.”

STRATEGIST 1: You’ve got one hour. Mr. Snow has a press conference to announce the new course. The ideal line says as little as possible.

MAD MAN 1: Understood.

MAD MAN 2: What about something like “Stay near the course”?

MAD MAN 1: Interesting. The current course is perceived as negative but still necessary . . .

STRATEGIST 1: . . . and “near” gives you options away from the course.

STRATEGIST 2: I had a thought. What about—and I know it’s longish—“Hey, you guys, look at the cool course over there. How ’bout we go there instead of this course with the dead bodies on it?”?

MAD MAN 1: I like that it’s colloquial.

MAD MAN 2: Human. Friendly. Or how about “Why stay when you can go?”?

STRATEGIST 1: Sounds like an exit-strategy line.

MAD MAN 2: He’s right.

MAD MAN 1: You’re right. What if it were “What remains is what was started. Only different”?

STRATEGIST 1: That’s interesting.

STRATEGIST 2: That’s very interesting.

STRATEGIST 1: It’s vague without being completely obtuse.

MAD MAN 1: BP uses the line “Beyond petroleum.” Why not something like “Beyond staying”?

MAD MAN 2: “Beyond the course.”

MAD MAN 1: “Beyond staying the course.”

STRATEGIST 1: I love that. [To Strategist 2] Did you hear that?

STRATEGIST 2: This Tang is warm.

MAD MAN 1: “Beyond staying the course.”

STRATEGIST 2: That’s very good.

STRATEGIST 1: Good. This is good. But what else? What other directions?

MAD MAN 2: I find the war so serious. It’s such a downer.

MAD MAN 1: Huge downer.

STRATEGIST 1: It tests very poorly.

MAD MAN 2: What about something lighter. “What happens in Baghdad stays in Baghdad.”

STRATEGIST 2: I like that a lot.

STRATEGIST 1: That’s very interesting.

MAD MAN 1: What about something just incredibly, like, almost poetic . . . like a . . . a . . .

MAD MAN 2: . . . a haiku . . .

MAD MAN 1: . . . a haiku. Exactly. I’m thinking, like, “Of course.”

MAD MAN 2: I love that.

STRATEGIST 1: It’s different.

STRATEGIST 2: It’s short. POTUS likes short.

MAD MAN 1: It’s pithy.

MAD MAN 2: Don’t use “pithy.” POTUS thinks pithy means “dirty.”

STRATEGIST 1: “Of course.” Interesting.

MAD MAN 1: Or “Of course. Where you stay.”

MAD MAN 2: “Of course. Stay a while.”

MAD MAN 1: “Of course we’ll stay!”

STRATEGIST 1: That’s great!

MAD MAN 1: Could we get ice? What is Tang, anyway?

2006-11-13T20:27:00.000-05:00

Achieving Engagement in a Post-Mass Media World

As Web 2.0 is still in its infancy, young and old alike are learning the ropes of a new and ever changing channel of communication. Young PR pros are familiar with web based applications in ways that older generations of PR professionals are not.

I think part of the advantage of being young and in PR is that we're entering a field at a turning point. We have a blank slate, so to speak, while others are being forced to abandon the ingrained command and control method of communication and adopt a more symmetrical approach that my former professor James Grunig preached.

What better way to encourage our clients to become more transparent and collaborative with their audiences than to explain to them: you no longer have a choice.

Anyway, here's a recent summary from the Council on Public Relations "Achieving Engagement in a Post-Mass Media World." One my colleagues from our New York office attended and found it to be very helpful.

2006-11-13T19:43:00.000-05:00

Welcome to DC PR Pros...

Young PR pros are being asked at agencies and firms around the world to build a skill set around the new digital media. I certainly have at my firm. While we neophyte employees may initially be asked to attend the local blogging workshop because of our low billing rate and ability to PDF a Word doc, it's our inherent knowledge of the Internet, our ability to read through relevant RSS feeds, and our eagerness to pitch our client for an upcoming Podcast that will take PR in a new direction.

We've been trained at the University level to use digital classrooms, Nexus/Factiva and online study groups as tools to navigate our way through the demands of college in the 21st Century. It only makes sense that the young ranks of PR firms are the ones who are taking the lead in developing their firms' ability to communicate using these new channels.

Readers of Young DC PR no doubt understand the value of the press release and the media advisory -- we learned that in Journalism/PR 101. Additionally, readers will no doubt appreciate the experience it takes to develop a strategic communications plan based upon years of figuring out what works. What you can expect to find here, however, is more of a focus on the new technologies as a means to communicate with consumers; it's what I hear my clients asking for everyday and it’s what will make us younger PR pros more valuable than a years’ subscription to Bacons.