July 2004 - Global PR Blog Week 1.0

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Site Statistics and Trends

July 22, 2004

We used Sitemeter and our own server to track statistics. There is a rather large discrepency between the two, with our server showing more than 200,000 page views from July 11 - 17 and Sitemeter showing under 30,000. There are problems with both numbers, due to technical issues, but regardless of which you like better, this was a very respectible showing for the event. We are still receiving several hundred visitors a day, with nearly 2,000 pageviews, according to Sitemeter.

So, with an eye to trends, vs. actual numbers, which as we have seen above are fairly problemmatic, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week were the busiest in terms of all measures: visits, page views and pages viewed per visit. All measures are in decline, yet still respectible nearly a week after the event "closed."

The most popular pages were the interviews, with Jay Rosen's heading the list, followed by Seth Godin, then Dan Gillmor. The most popular post that wasn't an interview was Trevor's inaugural post, Re-thinking PR.

Our referrers list was topped by Technorati. The order was:

www.technorati.com
blo.gs/ping.php
technoflak.blogspot.com/
www.bloglines.com/myblogs_display
weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/
www.prwatch.org/spin/
sethgodin.typepad.com/
www.scripting.com/
www.feedster.com/
www.natterjackpr.com/

Our wiki was also a good referrer, with people stopping by through several different pages.

We'll keep an eye on the trends, and will share them with everyone over the next few weeks.

Author: Elizabeth Albrycht | Jul 22, 04 | Permalink | 1 comments
Category: Announcements

A participant’s final thoughts

July 19, 2004

We made it up as we went along. Global PR Blog Week began as a vague idea about creating a virtual conference. During months of discussions, via a Yahoo group list, ideas were tossed around, rejected or accepted, and refined, until we created something truly splendid.

The public has many misconceptions about the work of PR professionals. Now there is a place in the public domain where anyone with internet access can read about our work and judge for themselves.

Our single most important contribution may have been to shift our industry from the idea of controlling the message and manipulating public opinion to that of presenting the message and cultivating public opinion. This change of metaphor is crucial to successful public relations in a world of increasing transparency. Those who fail to make transparency their friend will find it a formidable enemy. We offer readers many ideas on how to make transparency their friend.

Technoflak thinks Global PR Blog Week will serve as a prototype for similar events. Any group could have done this, and I think PR pros everywhere can take some pride that our profession was the first.

Author: Alice Marshall | Jul 19, 04 | Permalink | 4 comments
Category: @ Alice Marshall | Final Thoughts

Traditional PR is dead - Long Live DIY PR

I stand by my original thesis that PR is dead.

Based on the comments I received, I will modify it as:

Traditional PR is dead. Long live DIY PR!

DIY PR will be the authentic voice of corporations. And it will come from employees and C-level executives doing it for themselves and their organizations and not from the professionals.

We will still need PR people, just far fewer. PR pros that can give up control and teach organizations to communicate with their customers in a human voice will survive; many others will not. And in the long term, the formal boring PR voice, messages and spin will become extinct and replaced by people conducting conversations with their customers and clients.

Quiet is the new loud

July 17, 2004

When trying to summarize my impressions of this week, I come to think of the title of an album by the Norwegian lo-fi rock group Kings of Convenience. It is called "Quiet is the new loud". Is that not what we have been preaching through out this week? That, in times when everyone screams, the solution is not to scream louder but to whisper. It has become incredibly hard to reach consumers via mass communication. Super Bowl ads and sponsorships of the Olympics, millions of dollars are spent on branding activities with questionable results. But with new technology like blogs we have the opportunity to start small conversations - whispers - with tiny groups of people who actually will listen, which if our predicitions are right, in time will spread and our messages will have the chance to reach larger audiences. Quiet is the new loud.

Anyhow, Global PR Blog Week has been a positive and interesting experience. We have learned a lot ourselves, made new contacts and hopefully shared knowledge with people outside our little PR blog community. One thing though that I think have been partly missing from the debate is that we are focusing very much on the distribution of news and not the quality of news today. Sure we like to believe that media consumers are getting more and more of their news online, but at least here in Sweden, it is simply the online versions of the traditional media. Still just a fraction of all people get a fraction of their news intake via blogs or independent online media. Big media rules like never before, in spite of internet. And big media don't write about stuff that matters anymore.

Media concentration in combination with conglomeration and infotainment journalism prevents vital information from reaching citizens in favour of trivia. And in my eyes is it getting more and more difficult for PR to get the messages out simply because the media are full of non-news and the space PR is fighting for is getting smaller and smaller. Let me give you an example from Sweden.

Last fall, the Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death in the center of Stockholm by a young man named Mijajlo Mijailovic. It was a story that was of vital interest to all citizens of this country. A leading member of the government gets stabbed by a lunatic in broad daylight. The notion shook our socitey and everything Sweden stands for: openess, safety, democracy etc.

In January 2004, there was a murder in Knutby, a small community north of Uppsala in Sweden. The story had all kinds of nasty ingredients, including sex, murder, religion and technology. A perfect news story, but one that had nothing to do with ordinary people's lives, and should not be very interesting.

Not surprisingly though, Swedish media have to this date written 7291 articles about the Knutby murder and just under 6000 articles about Mijailovic. Both incredibly high numbers, but still, shouldn't the murder of our Foreign Minister be more important to cover than a local murder within a close circle of people? Why are media full of trivia and nonsense like all these reality show "news"? These stories are like a balloon you try to flush down the toilet. It is just air, but it still keeps floating up to the surface over and over again. Even serious news tend to turn into mega events. One month it is the Iraq war, the next it is all about the European Championships in football or the Olympics. News are blown out of proportion and no other stories can be told.

This is what we are up against and what I think is the most important challenge for the new PR - to find ways to increase diversity of voices and to get a multitude of messages. Blogs, wikis and so on are a very good start and I have high hopes for the future. Let's continue to build on the knowledge we've gained during Global PR Blog Week and make it an annual event.

Author: Hans Kullin | Jul 17, 04 | Permalink | 3 comments
Category: @ Hans Kullin | Final Thoughts

Day 5: Emergence of Ideas

July 16, 2004

On the last day of Global PR Blog Week, we tackled the topic of the State of the PR Profession. As one might expect, this generated an incredibly wide variety of posts, including interviews with luminaries like Seth Godin, Jack O'Dwyer and Richard Edelman. The state of the profession was examined from multiple angles, including ethics, professionalization/need for accreditation, the role of PR in facilitating the learning process inside organizations, and from the results of a survey of PR professionals ourselves.

Some highlights:

1) Constantin issues a challenge to the Global PR Blog Week and the wider communities of PR professionals and academics worldwide to create a code of online PR conduct.

2) The idea that constantly evolving online content, i.e., content that is new and current, is viewed as [therefore?] credible. This in the discussion of dynamic communications.

3) With the internet becoming the preferred news source for millions, how does the PR industry have to change (a theme that has been pervasive throughout this week)?

4) How do PR agencies, from the large international conglomerates to boutiques and networks, view their practices in today's economic climate? Here.

5) Most corporations view customer feedback as a cost and threat vs. an opportunity. Here.

6) PR people in the US care about being ethical to society. Here.

Day 5 Stats

Global PR Blog Week was Feedster's Feed of the Day!

Technorati: Global PR Blog Week 1.0 has 268 Links from 80 Sources

VISITS

Total: 7,020
Average Per Day: 678
Average Visit Length: 6:14
Last Hour: 35
July 16: 1,135
This Week: 4,747

PAGE VIEWS

Total: 22,609
Average Per Day: 2,375
Average Per Visit: 3.5
Last Hour: 58
July 16: 3,325
This Week: 16,625

Author: Elizabeth Albrycht | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 0 comments
Category: Announcements

The New PR - A Call to Action

The signs are here: Bill Gates pitches CEOs on bottom-up communication and empowerment, RSS, and "a thing called blogging," Business Week reports on the visible extinction of mass marketing, and the New York Times's editorialists tremble with anticipation at the thought that bloggers covering the Democratic Convention will "lace the proceedings with fresh insight and even some Menckenian impertinence." As the saying goes, we're living in interesting times.

The future - as always - seems bright. But we're not there yet.

There's a huge gap between the promises of tomorrow and the daily reality of Public Relations practice, and we can do something to fill this gap.

What do we need?

1. A reconsideration of the role played by PR professionals

The increased public pressure for transparency is met by the businesses' concern that, instead of building trust, this will expose organizations to further harsh scrutiny. But organizations will have to change in order to survive, and PR professionals can have a leading role in this process. Pitching blogs, monitoring micro media outlets, and offering RSS feeds are all fine endeavours (if done well) - but probably the most challenging task for PR pros will be to make the case for dialogic public relations and address the implications of such an approach in terms that will make sense for management. Employees' expectations for freedom of speech and opinion will grow, fuelled by the social and media habits of the internet generation, and by the constant pressure of having to deal with the daily conflict between online freedom (outside the workplace) and workplace restrictions. How to reconcile these expectations with the organizational culture and regulatory environment will be an important task for PR pros (for more about speech rights for corporate bloggers, see Jay Rosen: PR Needs to Stand for Real Transparency, Letter to Bill Gates, Soon to be a Weblogger).

2. A code of conduct for online communicators. Two starting points:

The Arthur W. Page Society: Establishing Principles for Public Relations on the Internet
Pete Snyder: Wanted: Standards for Viral Marketing

3. New tools

We need new ways of facilitating relationships (hint: see "relationship portals"), as well as tools for capturing, analyzing and understanding in real time the skyrocketing volume of conversation happening on the web. The use of RSS feeds and blog search engines is extremely useful, but we'll have to see if, and how, it will scale. Soon, notifications - as lists of headlines (or long pages of full text postings) - will be not enough; the next step is to have them analyzed in their context, grouped by various criteria, and represented in a compelling visual form.

4. New paradigms, players, and resources

With the rise of personal publishing, the whole process of public opinion formation is changing and we'll have to understand how various socio-technical shifts are factoring in.

We need to be willing to learn from other disciplines (Knowledge Management comes first in mind) and to start a dialogue with the academic world, that's a largely untapped resource of knowledge, expertise, and research skills and capabilities. There's a growing lack of communication between the academic and the professional world, and this is likely to affect both of them, and public relation as a field of knowledge. As the scholar publishing starts to change its business model under the influence of the open access movement, more and more academic articles will be available online, for free, if professionals will ask for them (notable, Reed Elsevier, the world's largest publisher of scientific and scholarly journals, including Public Relations Review, announced recently that allows authors to offer open access to their article, if they are posted on personal or institutional websites).

But that's not enough; we have to encourage the academic community to open itself and join the conversation. 15,000 new weblogs are created everyday, but we still have to found an American public relations professor who's blogging.

Also, we need to find a solution that will allow PR students and practitioners to learn about the changing landscape of the PR practice in real time - as changes are happening. The internet is still presented in PR textbooks as a "new technology" that offers "interesting opportunities". We past that point a long time ago, and we need internet-based learning materials and methods to capture the freshest knowledge in the field.

So, here's the challenge:

Let's create a community that will make all - or most - of these things happened.

The Global PR Blog Week has already coalesced a group a bloggers, most of them PR professionals and academics. We can expand this community, and start working at The New PR:

We can continue to build on the resource created by this event.
We can start to draft a code of conduct for online communicators.
We can help PR and communication professors to start blogging, by offering them help and advice.
We can start asking authors to make their articles available for the larger community of PR practitioners.
We can start writing a collaborative, online PR textbook that it will be available online for free.

And that's just the beginning.

This is what I'd like to do - how about you?

Author: Constantin Basturea | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 3 comments
Category: @ Constantin Basturea | Topic 5 State of PR Profession

The Battle Over PR

Public relations is at a crossroads. The industry has weathered the bad times - downturn in economy, dot-com bubble bursting, title inflation, junior staffing to save costs - and is now ready to enter into a new era, one where public relations is going to either take the lead, or just become part of the advertising and marketing mix.

It really depends on who takes the lead, and what will bear out in the coming year. Is public relations going to be driven by the boutiques, by the seasoned practioners that branched out on their own? Or are the large independents going to continue to grow and provide better counsel and strategy - and the sense of safety of a large corporation - and beat out both the multinationals and the boutiques. Or, as The Economist recently noted, the face of advertising is changing, and the multinationals could be better positioned to serve with "below-the-line" advertising, like public relations and guerilla tactics.

For this article, instead of presenting just my views on boutiques vs large corporations, I went out to interview the pillars and pundits of public relations: Jack O'Dwyer of O'Dwyer Publications; Richard Edelman of Edelman Worldwide for a view from the big seat; Matthew Podboy from the boutique angle as a cofounder of Voce Communications; Jonathan Zaleski for the view of the small boutiques forming their own group at The PR Collective; and then Ben Silverman of PR Fuel fame from the pundit and journalist perspective and Lindsay Olson from the recruiting views at Paradigm Staffing.

While the rest of the participants responded to emailed questions, O'Dwyer was on vacation and was gracious enough to be interviewed over the phone. While he deviated from the questions, or characterized some as idiotic, he provided some good insight into the state of public relations. The rest of the participants will be presented as a Q&A for the post.

JACK O'DWYER, O'DWYER PUBLICATIONS
O'Dwyer went to the University of Connecticut, and was the former business reporter for the Journal American, then marketing columnist for the Chicago Tribune, then founded O'Dwyer Company 36 years ago. The O’Dwyer Company has been recognized as the leading publisher about the public relations industry, and provides the latest news and information about public relations firms and professionals, the media, corporations, legal issues, jobs, technology, and much more through its website, newsletters, directories, and guides (O'Dwyer Publications).

________________________________________

With the $13B debt hanging over the heads of the multinational conglomerates, all that the large agencies care about is tracking the time to the second, squeezing out as much money from the clients as possible.

But, for a corporation, if the choice is between a large independent or multinational and a boutique, the corporation would be better off going to a larger firm. By going with the large firms, the company gets worldwide presence. Right now, 48 countries are being served by the large agencies.

With the smaller boutiques, corporation has to worry about "virtual particles" - the problem is that the boutique can be here today, but gone tomorrow. With the boutique, there is a higher risk factor.

In regards to measuring public relations, it is just idiotic. Public relations is about winning good will, it's an honest job that is not measurable because you cannot price the truth. Public relations is not about marketing, public relations should not be sold by time as it's not measurable by time. How can you measure good will with the public? How can you measure creativity?

The biggest problem with the conglomerates is that it has become about time measurement, a stopwatch mentality, which has translated into public relations becoming research-focused, which takes an immense amount of time and can be immensely billed.

An agency can come in with reams of research, but there's no creativity there, and public relations is about creativity, about the spin. Public relations is about hits, it's about getting ink and notorierty and targeting the public. Our job is to get the message across, effectively, and there is no measurement for beyond clips and being on message.

Right now, there are very bad forces affecting public relations. We are supposed to be a bridge for the press to get to CEOs, not a barrier, but the industry has fallen into the trap of blocking access for the press. There is this tremendous force that is trying to convert public relations into advertising, especially at the conglomerates, and that will be the downfall of public relations.

(Breaking News Part ...) To help combat such thinking, O'Dwyer Publications is going to begin the O'Dwyer Awards, which will focus on the quality and quantity of press and the press' access to the CEO. The O'Dwyer Awards will be for firms that get press, and are a bridge for the company, not an impediment.

RICHARD EDELMAN, EDELMAN WORDLDWIDE
Richard Edelman is the president and CEO of the world’s largest public relations firm with 1800 employees in 39 offices worldwide. Edelman, named 2003 Agency of the Year by The Holmes Group, has been a leader in public relations since it was founded in 1952.

Richard Edelman was named president and CEO in September 1996. Prior to that, he served as president of Edelman’s U.S. operations, regional manager of Europe and manager of the firm’s New York office.

Richard won the Silver Anvil, the highest award in the public relations industry, in 1981. He was named ‘Best Manager of the Year’ by Inside PR magazine in 1995. He serves on the board of directors of the New York Historical Society and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum, the Arthur Page Society, PR Seminar, the International Council of the Field Museum, and the World Corporate Ethics’ Council. He has worked on several political campaigns including “Jim Thompson for Governor” and “Ed Koch for Mayor.”

With the current state of public relations – with purchasing departments coming into the equation, influencing the agency choice – how does your firm position itself and its costs to the client?

We need to provide a cost effective, cost justified solution to clients. We can be transparent on our cost structure, and build in suitable profit on top of cost and suggest some means of sharing in the success, such as bonuses or more fees.

What accounts and situations do you feel are better suited for a boutique? For a large multinational agency?

Clients best for Edelman are those with complex problems, cross border, requiring multiple practices skills or those requiring immediate scale with lots of resources applied.

How is your agency able to justify the costs of a multinational conglomerate to the clients – paying for all levels of talent, and offices?

We justify our prices on basis of excellence of personnel, unique products such as brand care, great intellectual capital such as our trust barometer, and of course, great results. We also try to be reasonably priced.

What differentiates your agency and experience?

Our 52 year heritage in marketing to consumers. Our global reach. Our creatvity and our independence of ad agency ownership. Our specialist abilities in public affairs, financial PR and crisis communications.

Are corporations demanding more return on their public relations dollars? Are you seeing a push for less money, but more results?

Companies are demanding more ROI statistics. We have developed a relationship index to measure quality of connection to stakeholders, and now have an advertising equivalent called PR GRP that can be adopted by all agencies to help measure public relations. Edelman is encouraging other agencies to use PR GRP, to use the metrics and language, to help corporations relate to the measurement. More information will be forthcoming on the Edelman Web site, and we are meeting with various organizations to bring them on board.

Money is definitely coming our way out of advertising. Examples include Unilever campaigns on Dove and Axe. Technology and health have been big spenders on public relations for years, and consumer products are beginning to transfer monies from advertising to public relations. And, Edelman is very nimble on guerrilla tactics with such examples as the KFC promotion with The Apprentice and Donald Trump.

One of the complaints against large, multi-national conglomerates is that accounts are being used to teach junior staff – how do you respond to this?

Yes, we have junior staff. And, that is a good thing. They live in the fast changing real world with different media choices, are more open to new ideas, more tolerant of new ideas. They are less reliant on establishment media and bring more creativity to the accounts. For our work, we have mix of junior and senior folks. Now that I am 50, I am in latter group. But, we don't put untrained folks forward. We take training very seriously to provide for our clients.

During the technology boom, the industry saw the large conglomerates either start boutique shops or buy them – such examples are PR21, Red Whistle, Simon/McGarry. Do we see that trend returning, with more skilled and targeted teams able to provide more counsel and work for clients? Will we see the boutiques again being acquired by the large agencies?

I do not see another crop of boutiques springing up. Those that survived the recession did so on basis of specialization, a clear focus on a given business area and great service. Clients are moving to firms that have scale, depth of resource, and are priced competitively.

Essentially, Edelman started out as a boutique, and has expanded since then. How has the culture changed since the founding of the firm, and is there still elements of the boutique mindset?

We still operate mentally as if we are a small business. My dad does not take the wins for granted, and beats himself up on each account or pitch lost. Happily, I celebrate the wins but suffer in defeat.

We are still private, family owned business, so we take it all pretty seriously. Come to a family dinner some time. The main topic is usually business. I love being an entrepreneur, and we are now moving into India

The Edelman family built this business with our own hands, and can appreciate what each boutique owner is going through daily. We are a success story, but we never take anything for granted.

The Edelman motto is "relentless pursuit of excellence" and "never surrender."

Do you have any closing thoughts for the readers on your views on the state of public relations?

PR has to get beyond the perception that we are simply media relations. We are also counsel. We can do promotions. In short, we need to compete with both ad agencies and mangement consultants for budget, not simply our fellow PR firms.

MATTHEW PODBOY, VOCE COMMUNICATIONS
Matthew Podboy co-founded Voce Communications with Richard Cline and David Black in June 1999, coming from Miller/Shandwick Technologies (now Weber Shandwick). The three set out to build an agency incorporating the best of the large PR conglomerates into a consultant model. Before Miller/Shandwick Technologies, he worked in-house for several non-tech companies in Santa Barbara, California.

Voce Communications is a mid-size firm with 31 employees in Palo Alto and Boston. We focus on five communication disciplines: public relations (including micro media/influencer campaigns), analyst relations, investor relations, customer acquisition and public affairs. Our largest footprint is PR and within PR, our present focus is on the technology market. The other disciplines are growing and diversifying our client portfolio.

PR programs seem to be in a good corporate position - meaning the budgets are appearing if they were cut or growing if they were cut down. Your question does bring up an interesting point. We've seen the finance departments and CFOs much more involved in the selection process. Voce offers modest billable rates for some of the best tech PR consultants in the industry so we are rarely challenged on cost.

So how do we differentiate the firm? To put it frankly - we offer a healthy alternative to the multi-national conglomerates. We're hungry. We're fast and lean. When we engage in a dialogue with a new prospect, it's because we want the business and we believe in the story. We aren't winning "accounts" and staffing them with "bodies." We are PR consultants. When we find the right match with a new client, we believe that our counsel will help the organization meets its communication goals. It sounds cliché but focusing on doing a lot of little things differently, in the end, will create a new model for PR.

What accounts and situations do you feel are better suited for a boutique? For a large multinational agency?

Maybe this should be answered by ruling out some of the common opinions. In my experience, the size of the vendor has no bearing on whether or not a large or boutique firm should assist the PR program. We can all list large and small companies that have various "size" PR firms. How about the need to have an "international" program. We challenge that notion at Voce quite often. I don't think the industry is quite ready to concede that international PR programs have nothing to do with international firms - but we are getting close.

For one particular client, Voce manages international coordination responsibilities for the entire Asia Pacific region consisting of: Australia and New Zealand, Greater China (PRC/HKSAR), Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, and India. Voce managed the agency RFI process for the selection of each agency and manages the contract and budget process for each along with local country management. Each agency directly reports to Voce for day-to-day tactical items as well as long term strategic objectives. Voce, in turn, reports the worldwide corporate PR team. Voce also held international coordination responsibilities for other South America and Mexico. One thing we have learned is that there are terrific boutique and mid-size PR firms all over the world. Can we take all the credit? No. Our client has built a terrific model to make it work. The point is, the need for an international program does not require an international agency. Those are the common situations. In the end, it depends on the internal team working with the agency. Past experience and personal/professional relationships will push many vendors to one side or the other. Some folks are going to take a long time to trust a hungry boutique or mid-size firm because of a bad past experience. The same is true for the large conglomerates.

My point here is that the old opinions that big vendors should have big firms or that firms wanting an international presence should hire an international firm should not factor into the equation. Let the firm's expertise and the value of their counsel drive the decision. Factor team chemistry into the equation. Don't look at the number of cities listed on the business card - look at the team across the table.

How is your agency able to qualm fears of your small size, limited localities to prospective clients?

Our experience, our team and our clients have to smash those misconceptions. If they can't be torn - or if it doesn't look like they can be torn down - it's best if we don't work with that firm. More often that not, however, the vendors we meet give us a fair chance to explain why our model for PR supercedes size and location.

What differentiates your agency or experience?

Our people. That is the only true currency for a PR firm. Great people build a great culture. A good culture keeps people happy and excited about their job and their career path. A good culture creates opportunity and growth for everyone. And the result is great client service. The people have to come first. We believe this to the core and our clients benefit from it each day.

Are corporations demanding more return on their public relations dollars? Are you seeing a push for less money, but more results?

This is a good question. On one hand I tend to believe that everyone should try and get the most out of their vendors - be it PR firms, mortgage brokers, appliance vendors or copy machine technicians. The PR industry should not be immune to pressure for results. Can it go too far and exploit good PR consultants? Sure - and I'm sure it happens in every industry. There was certainly more pressure on PR firms to perform during the downtown. Budgets came down and expectations stayed high. For the most part I think that situation has been corrected and things are “normal” again – you can define that for yourself….

According to a recent article in the Economist, advertising budgets are being shifted away from advertising to public relations, and other “below-the-line” efforts. Have you seen your clients transfer budgets away from advertising into public relations?

Not nearly enough! All joking aside, we have seen some instances where advertising budgets are being redirected to PR but I don’t have the data to confirm if it’s an industry wide trend. What I assume from the term “below-the-line” is that micro media and influencer campaigns conducted by PR firms are pulling advertising budgets. If that’s the case, it’ll be important to measure below-the-line programs or they’ll quickly turn into advertising dollars again.

The industry seems to be moving away from strict press relations to more integrated relations, with guerilla marketing, event marketing, and community relations. How is your agency nimble enough to handle the new demands from clients?

This is precisely why our consultant model works. We have the experts in place to handle emerging communication trends. Our model is built upon being nimble. We must be at the forefront of the PR industry if we are to effectively counsel our clients. Our consultant-minded culture breeds this type of integrated marketing expertise. Our people are empowered to develop their counsel for the benefit of their colleagues and clients.

One of the complaints against large, multi-national conglomerates is that accounts are being used to teach junior staff – how do you respond to this?

I tend to believe that this is an eroding stereotype similar to the notion that smaller agencies can’t handle large, international brands. I began my career at a large firm and learned a lot from my colleagues. My teammates became mentors – and a few became business partners in addition to mentors. There are good PR consultants in large firms - young and old.

One of the complaints against boutiques is that low-level task work is being performed by senior level people, using precious account time. How do boutiques address such an issue?

We believe that there is a room for strategic value at every “level” of the account. Smaller firms do require a bit more scale from their employees and that offers terrific upside potential too. A properly structured account team should have folks performing work that meets their ability and challenges them to improve. The small to mid-size firms I’m familiar with provide this opportunity as well as the large agencies.

During the technology boom, the industry saw the large conglomerates either start boutique shops or buy them – such examples are PR21, Red Whistle, Simon/McGarry. Do we see that trend returning, with more skilled and targeted teams able to provide more counsel and work for clients? Will we see the boutiques being acquired by the large agencies?

Is there room for consolidation in the PR market? Perhaps, but that should not be the focus of small and mid-size firms. It’s a byproduct of building great teams and providing outstanding client service.

When pitching against a boutique / large agency, how do you position the company as better-suited to serve the client’s interests?

If we enter into a discussion with a prospect due diligence has already suggested that the relationship could work. From there, we focus on their objectives and our strengths. We certainly put our team in a position to communicate their experience and recommendations – we want the team to be tested. We present the account team – not a cloak of senior advisors that’ll drift away over time. By exposing the team, the client is in a better position to appreciate our strengths and make a decision.

Currently, Voce has two offices. Do you see Voce as one day being the next Ruder Finn or Edelman, growing into a national or international presence?

We are shooting a bit higher than yet. We’d like to take down Omnicom or IPG. I’m kidding…We are looking at new markets to establish a presence and some of those markets are oversees. My vote is for an Olive Oil PR office on Italy’s Amalfi Coast but I haven’t found the right business model to pull it off – yet. We are committed to no more than 25-30 employees in one office. If we have enough business in a particular region to justify a larger team, we will start another office. We are fanatics about people and culture and believe that it can be lost in offices with more than 30 employees.

In what sense or instances do you feel that clients would be better served by a large, multinational firm?

Small to mid-size firms will have a tough time with companies that have limited internal resources and limitless egos. Internal folks with limited experience may gravitate toward a large firm – to find a false sense of security. It’s similar to what some of our technology clients face – “Nobody ever got fired for buying Cisco or IBM.” Savvy PR professionals will evaluate agencies with a set of criteria that tests small, medium and large firms on their level of counsel.

In what types of accounts do you think that boutique firms are better suited for?

I’m painting with a broad brush here, but typically, internal folks who have experienced diverse PR relationships – in house teams, agencies, contractors – will appreciate the fact that they are hiring counsel and experience that can be found at a variety of firms. The key is equal opportunity.

How has the request for international (or region specific, i.e. Asia, Europe) affected your firm's odds of receiving an RFP?

We have relationships with the best firms in each of the top international regions. In many cases we have helped our clients conduct the RFPs in those regions. We thrive on the request for regional specific programs and our experience in this area has kept the pipeline full of prospects.

If you have global capabilities, how do you market that? Or are you content in working within only the North American market?

Our global capabilities are based on a network of experts in the top international markets. We work with these folks daily and often serve as the North American point of contact for our clients. International programs are exciting and teach PR consultants important lessons about how to spin messages to serve a specific culture or region. Over time, we plan to have our own presence in some of these regions but we will always have a network of experts to best serve our clients.

Do you have any closing thoughts for the readers on your views on the state of public relations?

I think PR people have to be optimists. I’m certainly a glass is half-full type when it comes to PR and I’m inclined to say that the PR industry (read: the technology PR industry) looks great. New companies are being funded with the promise of exciting new technology. That also forces the established players to become more agile and focus on innovation. These are all good indicators for PR. Raising it up a notch, we do believe the PR model is changing. We must gravitate toward a consultant model. I don’t mean that everyone should venture out and become a lone practitioner. The focus is on counsel and expertise. The trick for the industry is that counsel and expertise is the result of hard work and dedication to the profession. It requires us to be “students” of the profession. Learning from one another and taking the best ideas, experiences and tactics to elevate the profession as a whole. This is the path we walk with a focus on the journey and not the destination.

JONATHAN ZALESKI, THE PR COLLECTIVE
The PR Collective is a national public relations company based in Santa Monica, California, with 40 Affiliate offices comprised of boutique agencies. The innovative company can connect clients with the best matched executive for their communications needs or create a centrally-coordinated team of communications experts handpicked from multiple offices. The PR Collective crafts and implements expert public relations campaigns for clients in all industries. The company's president, Jonathan Zaleski, is a PR veteran and former Director at Weber Shandwick's Rogers & Cowan.

With the current state of public relations – with purchasing departments coming into the equation, influencing the agency choice – how does the PR Collective position itself and its costs to the client?

Boutique agencies are small businesses and few entities on the economic landscape are more cost conscious that small businesses. I am always happy to point out the our Affiliate offices are run by publicists who are also entrepreneurs. They know about keeping costs down and understand that every dollar spent as on PR was hard earned by the client. It is our mission to control costs as much as possible without impinging on the effectiveness of the outreach.

On a more obvious level, boutique agencies operate with way less overhead. This makes it that much easier to avoid having to keep retainer fees high to support overhead and other costs completely unrelated to the outreach.

How is your agency able to qualm fears of your small size, limited localities to prospective clients?

The PR Collective has a unique business model that negates these fears. Since we are a centrally coordinated network of hand-picked boutique agencies located all over the country, we can build a team of any size and can craft an outreach targeting a single region or the entire country. We can also combine areas of expertise to handle companies with even the broadest focus.

Are corporations demanding more return on their public relations dollars? Are you seeing a push for less money, but more results?

The phrase I hear most often from potential clients is something along the lines of "we are idea rich but cash poor." These companies want more results from all dollars they spend whether it is for PR or not. With a rough economy, increased competition and scars still showing from the dot-com crash, every expenditure can be a make or break decision.

According to a recent article in the Economist, advertising budgets are being shifted away from advertising to public relations, and other “below-the-line” efforts. Have you seen your clients transfer budgets away from advertising into public relations?

Not only have we seen budgets in established companies move away from advertising, we are seeing start-ups passing up advertising and going straight to PR. Advertising has become so pervasive that the amount of money to make a dent with an ad campaign can be crippling.

We received a call the other day from a company that had been manufacturing designer clothes for years for other labels, and now was interested in launching their own label. They were quoted $880,000 for the first year by an ad agency. After that they simply crossed advertising off their list and turned to PR. Just about any PR agency would gladly get results for small portion of that. Public relations, when executed properly, is just too cost effective to not be considered an option.

The industry seems to be moving away from strict press relations to more integrated relations, with guerilla marketing, event marketing, and community relations. How is the PR Collective nimble enough to handle the new demands from clients?

Many of our Affiliates go beyond PR to be "marketing communications" agencies that can also build websites, create and implement direct marketing campaigns, handle events, and create advertising. The best part about this approach is that the client's message is integrated literally into all of their communications with the public. There is no interference or mixed messages to worry about.

One of the complaints against boutiques is that low-level taskwork is being performed by senior level people, using precious account time. How do boutiques address such an issue?

When I was in the large agency environment, I was expected to hold down six or more clients myself to help contribute to the overhead. Most boutique agencies can pull the same profit from three accounts. So if you were a company, how would you prefer your PR rep to be dividing their time? I would prefer mine was working on only two other accounts and taking a few hours a week to handle some administrative tasks as opposed to fighting with five other accounts for attention.

Plus I believe the best executives are the ones who participate in an account down to the nitty gritty details. The same person should be developing your message points, building your press kit, selecting your target media, crafting the pitch, writing your releases and bringing it to the media. That is the boutique approach in a nutshell. In larger companies, the person working on your account is often not the same senior executive you met with during the pitch. In a boutique you meet with the person who will be on the front lines with you, and you have constant access to them through the length of your outreach.

I hope not. A big word on the business landscape used to be "corporate culture." It was often applied to large companies but it exists in small companies too. In a small PR shop, corporate culture is a creative essence that gives the firm its character and fuels unique and effective approached to getting the word out on behalf of their clients. Getting gobbled up by a larger company, no matter how well intentioned, is going to trample some flowers in the garden. Small agencies come from a completely different mindset..one that rarely meshes well with the overhead-driven mindset of large PR entities. It is for that reason that we coordinate our Affiliate Offices, but we do not mettle with their formulas.

When pitching against a boutique / large agency, how do you position the company as better-suited to serve the client’s interests?

The PR Collective's business model, and approach to PR, is a blending of boutique and large agency boutique We really did stumble onto the perfect formula that is flexible enough to bring the creative pizzazz and small client fees of a smaller shop but with the resources and reach of a large conglomerate.

Currently, the PR Collective has a group of approximately 40 offices. Do you see the Collective as one day being the next Ruder Finn or Edelman, growing into a national or international presence?

The PR Collective already has a national presence. We have gaps in some of the less populated states that we are planning on filling over the next 12 months or so. However, we feel that somewhere around 80 Affiliates is the most we would want domestically. This is a comfortable number that allows us to cover all markets and all industries without having to push up our administrative costs or lose touch with our executives in the field. This is how we differ from a standard agency network. We all really do keep in touch with each other and the central office.

Synergy is not a buzzword over here, but a promise fulfilled. When a client calls and says they need some PR support for an educational product with an adventure angle, I know one of my two Connecticut Affiliate Offices is headed up by a pro who not only specializes in educational PR, but also is an explorer at heart who has traveled the world. He is a perfect match, but would I have known that if I was tracking 150 offices at once?

On the international side, we do plan on developing an International component of The PR Collective, but we are more focused on developing our domestic strategy and services first before we look in that direction. We would want a dedicated staff working with those Affiliates, so we again could develop strong relationships with our executives to best apply those resources to the right clients.

In what sense or instances do you feel that clients would be better served by a large, multinational firm?

If a company needs an outreach that truly requires different approaches in different countries, then a large multinational firm MAY be the way to go. However I would warn companies not to be lured in by overhyped promises of synergy between the PR agencies' various offices. Is the account being overseen by someone who has directly coordinated the offices in the various countries the potential client operates in? Maybe, but probably not. What these clients are paying for is the local cultural knowledge each office can apply to crafting a campaign in their home country, but the value really comes if someone who has a strong understanding of all pieces of the puzzle is bringing it all together into a cohesive cost-effective strategy.

In what types of accounts do you think that boutique firms are better suited for?

I think small to midsized companies in growth positions are best suited for boutique agencies because the mindset of the agency and client are usually the same. These type of companies also are stretched thin and are not often very sure exactly what they need from their PR company. They can really benefit from the self-starting approach that boutique agencies bring to the mix.

In a way, you have started a collective to mirror the conglomerates reach with the skill-set of boutiques. How do you ensure the PR Collective clients that the quality of work stays the same across the board?

We provide consistant service by centrally coordinating the accounts. When we build a Collective Team, the central office stays on board to administrate or participate in the team. This not only ensures a cohesive strategy, but also facilitates communications with the client by providing a senior executive as a point person who is involved and available.

Also, we built The PR Collective by gathering up some superb boutique PR shops then providing them access to resources that make them even stronger. Not any boutique agency can be an Affiliate. We limit the number of Affiliate Offices we have so we make sure we bring only strong PR talent into The PR Collective.

How has the request for international (or region specific, i.e. Asia, Europe) affected your firm's odds of receiving an RFP?

Until we expand into international markets we are not interested in receiving these types of RFPs. There is enough business to go around here domestically. Despite what you see in FedEx commercials, not every company has to target the entire world to be successful. A chain of restaurants in the northeast does not need to be big in Croatia. We do not feel the need to over extend ourselves or go after accounts we are not a strong candidate to perform well for.

Do you have any closing thoughts for the readers on your views on the state of public relations?

I believe that PR companies really have to look at what they are promising their clients, and start sorting out what is rhetoric and what is reality. It is a very competitive environment and agencies almost have to overpromise results in order to land a client these days. This is a dangerous practice that can sour the way the business community views our industry in a very short period of time. If a client has an aspect or strategy to their business that is going to make the PR effort difficult to sell the press, I would like to see agencies point out those challenges and suggest how the client can change that aspect to be more media friendly instead of promising them the world. It demonstrates that the agency cares more about seeing the outreach and the business succeed as opposed to juicing them for the length of the contract then moving on when the client is unsatisfied. A stronger company is a stronger client. This appraoch benefits the client, the agency, and our industry.

BEN SILVERMAN, PR FUEL / FINDPROFIT.COM
Silverman is a Contributing Editor for FindProfit.com, an investment research firm. He also handles public/media relations for the company. In his spare time, he writes PR Fuel, a weekly email newsletter aimed at public relations professional and PRFuel.com, a weblog covering PR-related topics. These are both products of eReleases.com, a press release distribution service. Previously, Silverman was a business news columnist for The New York Post and the publisher of DotcomScoop.com, an independent business news service. Prior to this, he was an executive at two privately-held online media and technology companies and he spent about five years working in the music business as an artist manager, independent record label owner and consultant for major recording labels.

You have worked as a reporter at the NY Post, as a Web journalist with Dotcomscoop.com, and now are working internal PR and as a columnist for FindProfit.com and have dealt with many PR people. When working with the large agency versus the boutique, which practitioners did you feel provided better access and help for you?

I've always felt more comfortable dealing with boutique agencies for one simple reason; I feel that the people at boutiques are more involved with the client and have a better understanding of the needs of the client. By and large, my dealings with boutiques were much smoother than my dealings with large agencies. I felt the boutiques offered better and faster access to client sources, information and material. When it came to writing about a company that employed a large agency, I always tried to side-step the agency and deal directly with someone at the company. If a company employed a boutique agency, I had no qualms about going through the outside PR firm to help accomplish my task.

What accounts and situations do you feel are better suited for a boutique? For a large multinational agency?

I think multinational agencies are obviously appropriate for multinational companies such as Microsoft and General Electric. For small companies, obviously a boutique is the way to go. A boutique will generally be more cost-effective and a small business does not have to compete with larger companies for the time and resources of the agency. I've found that large companies often employ boutique agencies for special products, certain units or simply specific public relations campaign. I think this is effective and is a good way to break up the staleness that comes from large agencies. There will be times when a company simply needs the power of a large agency - be it resources, "muscle," or contacts - but by and large, I see no reason why a well-staffed boutique agency couldn't be able to handle all but the largest accounts.

With that said, I think it's also important for all companies, once they reach a certain scale, to have in-house public relations people who can work with outside agencies to maximize the total PR effort.

During the technology boom, the industry saw the large conglomerates either start boutique shops or buy them - such examples are PR21, Red Whistle, Simon/McGarry. Do we see that trend returning, with more skilled and targeted teams able to provide more counsel and work for clients? Will we see the boutiques being acquired by the large agencies?

I'll be honest, I'm not that familiar with the consolidation trends that have taken place in the PR industry. However, I do believe that if the economy can reach a point of sustained recovery, that we will see consolidation across most industries. I do know that a lot of good PR firms have been ruined after being acquired. This is just a fact of businesslife when a larger company acquires a smaller company that has established itself as a niche player. My hope is that, like with the tech boom, people have learned their lesson and realize that if you're going to acquire a company to help your top- or bottomline, you'll take advantage of the inherent strengths of that company.

Are you seeing an improvement in the overall state of public relations?

The improvement I've seen from the industry has come through the eyes of a former journalist, so you'll have to take what I say with a grain of salt. But I did notice a somewhat quiet shift over the past few years in the industry and I've wondered if it had to the with the weak economy weeding out some people who simply should not be working in the industry. I should note that I feel this has also taken place in the media and many other industries and I certainly don't mean to say that anyone who has lost a job deserved to do so. Nonetheless, I think the public relations industry improves everyday because of new communication channels and more public scrutiny of the industry.

Events like The Global PR Week Blog are very important because they bring PR professionals together via a learning experience - and it's one that can extend to the general public. I think more improvement will come in the industry through two things: better training and a better understand within the business community of the role that public relations can and should play for a business.

Do you have any closing thoughts for the readers on your views on the state of public relations?

There are a lot of unfortunate misperceptions about public relations, the role of public relations and the media, and, public relations professionals in general. The media has, obviously, had a hand in perpetrating these misperceptions, but the industry itself hasn't helped much. I think most people equate public relations professionals to publicists, and we know there's a huge difference between the two. I think the focus on the industry now should be in coming up with better ways to quantify the work that public relations professionals do and working with the other cogs in the business machine so there's a clear understanding of the need for public relations beyond "getting some ink."

Oh, and if you still have me on your media list, please remove me.

LINDSAY OLSON, PARADIGM STAFFING
Paradigm Staffing Solutions was founded in 2001 to service the Public Relations and Marketing industries nationwide. Paradigm Staffing Solutions currently operates offices in California and New York City. Lindsay Olson is Founder and Executive Search Consultant and has been recruiting in the public relations and marketing industry since 1997. She currently manages the New York office and business development efforts nationwide. Jolie Downs, Director of Recruiting Services, manages our Bay area office and supports the search efforts for all of our customers requirements. Both Lindsay and Jolie are award winning executive recruiters who have been recognized in the top 25 executive recruiters in United States in a MRI network of over 1000 offices.

What accounts and situations do you feel are better suited for a boutique? For a large multinational agency?

We typically see the boutique agencies better suited to service and retain the smaller early stage startup and public companies. Not to say they don't service larger accounts well, but generally it seems earlier stage companies are more satisfied with the level of service and coverage that a boutique agency can provide. A boutique agency also seems to have less employee turnover allowing the client to build a long-term relationship with the account team members.

In business, conglomerates will always swallow smaller firms to acquire clients, skilled team members, more market share, etc. - however, there is a place for boutiques in the PR field, especially when it comes to the intimate attention a client may need.

During your recruiting efforts, do you see a preference from your placements to be either at a boutique or at a large multinational? Or, a large-sized independent?

In the current market, a large sized independent seems to be preferred. Between a boutique and large multinational it truly varies from candidate to candidate in what specifically they are looking for in their next position. With the downturn of the tech boom more people are concerned with the environment and candidates choosing the boutique route are generally more concerned about their day to day environment, working with less bureaucracy, more autonomy, and a wider variety of responsibilities. Candidates looking to build their resume and gain international exposure with Fortune 100 accounts tend to market themselves to the large multinational conglomerates. Preference is individual.

Does your agency get most of its work from the independent shops?

Yes, independent shops tend to retain our services more often, especially recently. A current client with a very small office in the Bay area recently mentioned how before using us to fill their Sr. Account Executive role, they were losing a majority of the candidates for this position on offers to the larger firms. I attribute this to the difference between interviewing and hiring passive candidates vs. active candidates. Passive candidates are not actively seeking employment, responding to the newest job advertisement, or shopping themselves around. They are only open to making a change when approached with the right opportunity. Sourcing these candidates and matching with the right company typically takes a recruiters touch.

Are you seeing an improvement in the overall state of public relations?
Absolutely. Agency and corporate opportunities are steadily on the rise. 2004 has been the busiest year we've had since late 2001.

Closing thoughts: As the founder of my own boutique, POP! Public Relations, I have an interesting seat to view all that is going on. The firm is located in a non-traditional PR city, I have worked at the large multinational, the boutique and in-house, and I have seen both the positives and negatives of all three. With the recent news of Fleishman Hillard in the Los Angeles Times on overbilling, and then the Los Angeles Daily News about the impending fraud lawsuit, our industry really needs to make the right decision for the future of our profession.

By providing the best possible public relations strategy and then execution (whether the boutique, the conglomerate or the independent), we can only hope that we prove our worth to a corporate world that just doesn't get public relations.

NB: if you are not registered with any of the news sites within the article, visit BugMeNot.

Author: Jeremy Pepper | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 3 comments
Category: @ Jeremy Pepper | Topic 5 State of PR Profession

Dynamic Communications and the case for speeding adoption of technology in PR

Since the Internet is becoming the default news source for millions, that means we, as communicators, increasingly need the ability to easily create, manage, distribute, and measure our messages in order to contribute directly, without intermediaries, to building, influencing and perhaps controlling our reputation - or our clients’ reputations - online.

Hence, all the interest here in blogs and Internet PR Tools. But as an industry, many people in PR are still behind the times in their use of technology to support their objectives.

Many practitioners still fax or even mail press materials. Of course, in certain cases this can’t be avoided. True - blogs and Internet-based PR tools do not serve every objective. But they are valuable in many cases. In fact, as others have mentioned this week this evolution is potentially reshaping the communications landscape. On a more practical level, appropriately applied technology has the potential to help us become more efficient, productive and effective PR practitioners.

I was quoted (apologies for the self-promotion - it's just a good example) in a recent issue of PRWEEK (log in required – sorry) in response to the question, “Can an Internet Pressroom increase my agency’s revenue per employee?”, in which I replied;

“The web can be used not just to provide access to press materials, publicity stills, VNRs, and b-roll on both a controlled and self-service basis, but also to facilitate distribution, build communities, manage blogs, and register and credential press contacts. You can even track the results.

“Consider the amount of billable time your employees spend responding to incoming requests for information manually via email. How many hours a day per employee do you think you could free up if you could automate the administrative side of PR campaign management?”

Of course I realize I may be “preaching to the choir” here, but I wrote the following article in order to attempt to educate and encourage those practitioners that are not fully taking advantage of the tools that are available today. It is my hope that all of us on the forefront of Internet PR will continue to evangelize the benefits of communicating online – what I call dynamic communications. Hence my question to the industry and communicators everywhere:

Are You Communicating Dynamically?

It took only a few years for the Internet to fundamentally change the way we communicate, and marketers have learned to take advantage of this new medium by creating innovative ways to reach their audiences; from banner ads and interactive pop-ups to talking email messages. But corporate communicators, for the most part, have not. With all the choices for news and information, it’s harder and harder to cut through the noise of the competition, keep audiences engaged and influence them to move in the right direction.

Static vs. dynamic communication:

Typically, the places on the Internet that draw the most visitors are always changing their content – weekly, daily, or even hourly. That content is dynamic, not static. The fresh, often personalized, information continually engages us and makes us want to return. Think of the Internet as a dynamic communications tool that gives us the ability to target, focus, and change our messages constantly in order to influence diverse sets of audiences. But too often online communications remain static, unchanged, and even out-of-date. Consider the benefits of dynamic communications:

Dynamic communications build credibility.

Think about the sources you trust and why you trust them. You’ll probably find some common themes: frequently updated content; comprehensive information; noted sources; clean, simple navigation; information in a variety of formats (photos, video, audio, PDFs, etc.); targeted, even personalized, content, all peppered with easy-to-use feedback and response mechanisms, such as registration forms and surveys.

This constantly evolving content, displayed in engaging formats using methods that fully exploit the Internet’s audio/visual capabilities, tells audiences that what they are viewing is new, it’s current, it’s credible. Note that most Reuters stories aggregated on Yahoo! for example, always have a date and a time and some even say, “2 hours and 8 minutes ago”. A simple notation tells us that this is the latest news; it’s up-to-date; it’s current; it’s credible.

Dynamic communications influences action.

Dynamic communications enables us to provide the content that will engage our audiences and encourage them to act. If our audiences don’t invest in our firm, write an article about us, buy more products or services, or do anything else we want them to do, then we haven’t done our job.

Journalists, as most of us know, have very specific requirements for the content they use. Their ability or inability to get the information they need affects the way they will write a story and usually determines whether or not they will write one at all.

The latest Neilson Norman Group study on, “Designing Websites to Maximize Press Relations” states, “If journalists cannot find what they are looking for on a website, they may exclude or limit information about that company in the story. According to our users, some test sites were so unusable that the journalists would have given the companies little or no press coverage.”

Ecast, Inc. is a San Francisco firm that runs a network of almost 2000 coin-operated, broadband-enabled digital downloading jukeboxes in North America. The company has seen its media coverage spike, according to Bob Cooney, V.P. of Marketing, since it began using a dynamic content management system for its Internet pressroom. (Read the Case Study for More)

In order to interest journalists in your company, you must provide them with more than just a press release. Consider creating a “speakers’ bureau” staffed by experts in various subjects within your organization, or perhaps a “hot topics,” “story ideas,” “trends” or “statistics” section to offer journalists ideas for stories that will pique their interest and make their job easier. When you become a better resource for factual, relevant and up-to-date information, you are more likely to get media coverage for your firm.

Some guidelines:

Look beyond the text

Dynamic communications should go beyond mere text. As communicators we usually have a variety of audiences that we need to reach. Even when the communication is internal to our organization we are usually addressing different types of employees and executives. Are we delivering our message in a format that will interest all of them? Some people respond to images, others to audio, still others to audio and video, or audio and text. Unless it’s really fresh, text alone is often not enough. How many times has a journalist asked you if you had any art to provide along with your release?

Avoid Dependence on IT

In order to keep your key audiences engaged, you need to keep your content alive – and you need to be able to do it easily from anywhere, at any time – without relying on a team of developers.

Learn From Savvy Communicators

There are many tools at our disposal, among them e-mail, eNewsletters and even interactive online press kits. Blogs (or web logs) have become a hot topic of late (though they have been around for some years) – mostly due to their effective use by U.S. politicians in the current presidential campaign. Former U.S. presidential candidate Howard Dean launched the trend by using a blog to shape his image and keep in daily touch with his supporters.

In a February, 2004, Wall Street Journal article titled, “Blogs Have Become Part Of The Media Machine That Shapes Politics,” (requires log in and payment – sorry) columnist Lee Gomes wrote, “These blogs are becoming an alternative-news universe, giving everyone with a PC and a Web connection access to the sorts of gossip that was once available only to reporters on the press bus.”

Don’t Forget the Power of the Moving Image

Multimedia tools are also effective. There are a number of firms which offer online conferencing and “webcasts” that enable communicators to make presentations with audio, and sometimes video, and even allow white-boarding (for drawing onscreen) with live online chat features. Many public companies use these tools to announce their quarterly earnings. Private companies should consider using similar multimedia to deliver their messages. Streaming media (video or audio on demand) is an effective and low cost tool that can be employed to display B-roll (company or product footage available for journalists), pitch a video news release, feature a spokesperson, communicate with employees, or educate partners and affiliates.

Leverage the Expertise of Your Peers

Use tools that have been built specifically for marketing and communications professionals employing “best practices” – based on experiences with leading corporations. Make sure you have the ability to create content-rich communications vehicles that include photos, video, and even audio, and link those to response and measurement mechanisms.

Avoid Maintaining Your Own Hardware

Look for services and software that can be delivered on demand – when you need them – over the Internet. No software to install. No long ramp-up times. Pay as you use. Look for a provider whose service can expand or contract according to your needs. Think about what makes sense for your organization and quantify the value and potential cost-savings by leveraging someone else’s existing assets.

Finally - Tap the Potential, Reap the Benefits

The Internet is no longer in its infancy – yet its potential is still highly underutilized. Take a step back and assess your current position. Follow the examples set by other savvy communicators and determine your goals (and your clients' goals) by considering the benefits, in terms of productivity and results that a truly dynamic communications platform can deliver to you and your organization.

Blogs are just one component in the overall mix of communications vehicles. They may make sense for your needs, they may not – either way, you can still blog for fun :)

Author: Chris Bechtel | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 0 comments
Category: @ Chris Bechtel | Topic 5 State of PR Profession

On the use of puppets

It was encouraging to read about transparency, public relations ethics and the insidiousness of spin at various points of this PR Blog Week. On this forum as in others, public relations professionals are trying to get the industry moving toward new paradigms and values.

The calls for change are coming not a moment too soon.

Ninety years after Ivy Lee was labelled a “professional liar” for saving the Rockefeller’s reputation following the Ludlow Massacre, public relations professionals are still being seen as one of the less trustworthy categories of human beings. The fact that famous entertainers and talk radio hosts score even lower on the Public relation Society of America’s National Credibility Index does little to make our 42nd (on 44!) place look better.

So after the first century of modern PR, our clients and employers recognize us as valuable members of the team, but the public thinks we’re despicable liars. How about starting the second century with a little public awareness campaign to correct public perceptions and clean up our image a little, as some proposed in other forums? Wouldn’t that improve our professional prospects, or at least our social life?

Perhaps, but we have to clean up our act a little if that fragile veneer of respectability is to stick. If not, we’ll have to continue avoiding the words “public relations” when future in-laws ask: “So, what it is that you do?”

The ever-present “spin”, mostly the look-at-the-bright-side variety, is probably what most people would complain about. As Jim Horton mentioned earlier this week, there’s “too damn much of it.” Cutting down on spin won’t be easy though, in part because the line between “a good pitch” and a bad spin can be tricky at times, and being recognized as a good spin doctor is a point of pride in some sectors of the profession.

I’m actually more concerned with the increasing awareness among the public that PR operations make massive use of seemingly independent groups or experts to bolster the credibility of dubious claims. The practice of putting together front groups as part of “astroturf” campaigns and buying the services of researchers with scientific credentials is now so widespread that it’s entirely possible most people interviewed as experts by the media are being fed their lines by a major PR firm.

Fairly few PR outfits and departments can summon the resources and ruthlessness necessary to use these tactics, but they’re having a large impact. On a global level, examples include climate change issues, genetically altered foods and foreign policy.

If they are allowed to continue, these practices might have lasting negative effects on academics and legitimate NGOs when large segments of the public realize the media makes little efforts to separate independent voices from PR puppets. Part of the blame will be placed at the door of some of the world’s largest communications firms, especially those that associate themselves with a controversial message for a long period. When people get sick, or global temperatures rise, or the earth doesn’t stop turning, inquiries will be made to learn why so many experts said were so sure about something that turned out being false. In some cases, the link between the faulty message, PR firms and their clients will be easy to follow.

Something to keep in mind in the ongoing discussions on establishing standards for public relations.

Note: I’m not involved in any way in the issues mentioned as examples, in case anyone’s wondering.

Author: Montag | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 1 comments
Category: @ Montag | Topic 5 State of PR Profession

PR: our role of facilitating the learning

Public Relations: Our role of facilitating the learning process inside the organizations

When finding us with new forms to be and to make organizations, it is imperative for us, professional and directors of corporative communication, to facilitate and to lead learning processes to find the keys that open the door of the success shared in the implementation of innovating practices in communication.

This affirmation receives sense when we interpreted to the organization like a network of conversations, and operating from the thesis that maintains that to the capacity and quality of the communications that arise from the organization towards the fan his stakeholders, define what it is possible to him to reach in terms, as much of economic growth, as of maximization of assets nonfinanciers.

The following article was conceived to be published within the frame of Global PR Blog Week, therefore, the content of the same one puts to consideration questions critics, from of the professional scope of Public Relations like coach within the new paradigm that supposes the tool.

The Blog Company

At the time of implementing this very good idea that is the corporative Blog, is important to analyze the same one from a social system methodology: observing and identifying tactically important points to adopt this new practice of communication in the organizations.

I consider that from the privilege place that has a professional of public relations in the corporative communications link, it is imperative to be leader of the change and to orient efforts in two-way traffic strategic that requires in this novel form to open communication channels: the people and the processes. This means to create learning spaces, taking part in the networks of conversations of the organization, being responsible for the effective development in terms of the confidence and the commitments that are generated of the same ones.

The theories (in permanent transformation) and first experiences that we are observing in the corporative world, do not leave doubts on the benefits and attributes of this innovator practice, nevertheless is necessary to implement this type of tools, to review three important axes of management: the competitions and abilities of the organization, the model of business, and our capacity like communication directors to lead, to teach and to train to all the people involved in this tool.

Before developing this technology, many organizations must consider if their shared culture and mental models have the attributes and characteristics necessary to implement this modality successfully. Let us remember that this tool proposes a new paradigm in communication and at the moment is put in practice by organizations who orient their efforts, in greater or smaller measurement, to the innovation of its processes of business; but not all the organizations, are proactive and many have enormous and heavy chains to implement these changes.

Before taking weblogs within strategies of external communications, many organizations they need to be observed if same verifying if they are really prepared for the challenges of this transformation in the way to talk with his stakeholders. Of course this affirmation is a great call to the action to do of this, a fact before implementation.

The collective reflection is precise, to unite the flow of different opinions of managers, to visualize indeed blogs like an excellent opportunity to construct bridges golden with its public. This forces to think about this change from the interior towards the outside, is to say to orient the efforts to the internal transformation that the organization needs to take ahead this practices in her communications, this way to approach the idea system considering as I detail myself previously, the people and involved processes of business.

This can take to the corporative conclusion that the use of weblogs is an opportunity to develop and to train equipment under the participation directives, collaboration and takes independent from decisions to agglutinate sinergye in networks of conversations. This is an important mission for the new status of the professional public relations.

This technology is a great handle of action for the construction of an organization with participative and reflective conversations of its points of view and mental models, and from our roll of director of communications or external consultants, it is imperative to give direction him to obtain the multiplicity condition that on the flow of communications that this tool supposes in the virtual world. The capacities of leadership and the competitions of coaching to accompany this process in this aspect acquire a critical relevance.

Consequently, implement corporative blogs, as much for internal communications as external, requires much more that the same technology. I maintain that the ideas, the values and the imagination are the three components that make of the technology a competitive advantage and a value in if same. As anything it will serve the attempt to implement and to obtain the benefits of weblogs in an organization where sinergye equipment does not exist and low a vision that hangs of a pretty poster, but not this in the commitment of the people.

To operate from the own language of the organizations is a great departure point to take part in processes more intense than it requires the effective implementation of weblogs. It is important to remember that the value or competitive advantage of this tool does not make the technology, but well the commitment of the people who useit. The language besides to conform the own essence of the organization, conforms the own conversational competitions that limit or expand the possibilities and opportunities of growth of if same.

The Blog company demands to happen of a emotional of the fear, very present in the organizations, to a emotional of confidence, where its participants, by means of the opening of I engage in a dialog reflective, initiate the possibility of opening and of sharing different points of view towards the freedom to investigate, to engage in a dialog and to reflect the involved hypotheses of certainty of each person or equipment. It is important to put emphasis in the construction of a shared vision to specify the values, aims and speeches of identity of the organization in the reach of this tool.

It is therefore that it practices it of the modern Public Relations require to work with in convergence of different disciplines, among them I emphasize the competitions of coaching and the importance of thinking this tool from a “systemic perspective”.

Matias Fernandez (Argentina)

Author: Matias Fernandez | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 1 comments
Category: @ Matias Fernandez | Topic 5 State of PR Profession

RP: Su rol de Facilitar Aprendizajes

Relaciones Púlblicas: nuestro rol de facilitar procesos de aprendizaje en las organizaciones.

Al encontrarnos con nuevas formas de ser y hacer organizaciones, es imperativo para nosotros, profesionales y directores de comunicación corporativa, facilitar y liderar procesos de aprendizaje para encontrar las llaves que abren la puerta del éxito compartido en la implementación de prácticas en comunicación innovadoras.

Esta afirmación cobra sentido cuando interpretamos a la organización como una red de conversaciones, y operando desde la tesis que sostiene que la capacidad y calidad de las comunicaciones que surgen de la organización hacia el abanico sus stakeholders, definen lo que le es posible alcanzar en términos, tanto de crecimiento económico, como de maximización de activos no financieros.

El siguiente artículo fue concebido para ser publicado dentro del marco de Global PR Blog Week, por esta razón, el contenido del mismo pone a consideración cuestiones críticas, desde del ámbito profesional de Relaciones Públicas como facilitador de aprendizajes, dentro del nuevo paradigma que supone la herramienta.

La Empresa Blog

A la hora de implementar esta muy buena idea que es el Blog corporativo, es importante analizar la misma desde una metodología sistémica: observando e identificando puntos claves, para adoptar esta nueva práctica de comunicación en las organizaciones.

Considero que desde el lugar de privilegio que tiene un profesional de relaciones públicas en la dirección de las comunicaciones corporativas, es imperativo ser líder del cambio y orientar esfuerzos en dos direcciones estratégicas que requiere en esta novedosa forma de abrir canales de comunicación: las personas y los procesos. Esto significa crear espacios de aprendizaje, interviniendo en las redes de conversaciones de la organización, siendo responsables del desarrollo efectivo en términos de la confianza y los compromisos que se generan de las mismas.

Las teorías (en permanente transformación) y primeras experiencias que estamos observando en el mundo corporativo, no dejan dudas sobre los beneficios y atributos de esta innovadora practica, sin embargo es necesario para implementar este tipo de herramientas, revisar tres importantes ejes de gestión: las competencias y habilidades (implícitas/explicitas) de la organización, el modelo de negocio, y nuestra capacidad como directores de comunicación de liderar, enseñar y entrenar a todas las personas involucradas en esta herramienta.

Por esta razón, antes de desarrollar precipitadamente esta tecnología, muchas organizaciones tienen que plantearse si su cultura y modelos mentales compartidos tienen los atributos y características necesarias para implementar con éxito esta modalidad. Recordemos que esta herramienta propone un nuevo paradigma en comunicación y actualmente es puesta en práctica por organizaciones que orientan sus esfuerzos, en mayor o menor medida, a la innovación de sus procesos de negocio; pero no todas las organizaciones, son proactivas y muchas tienen enormes y pesadas cadenas para implementar estos cambios.

Antes de llevar weblogs dentro de estrategias de comunicaciones externas, muchas organizaciones necesitan observarse a si mismas para comprobar si realmente están preparadas para los desafíos de esta transformación en el modo de conversar con sus stakeholders. Por supuesto esta afirmación es una gran llamada a la acción para hacer de esta, un hecho antes de su implementación.

Es precisa la reflexión colectiva, unir el flujo de opiniones de distintos managers, para que efectivamente, se visualize en conjunto los weblogs como una excelente oportunidad de construir puentes dorados con sus públicos. Esto obliga pensar en este cambio desde el interior hacia el exterior, es decir orientar los esfuerzos a la transformación interna que necesita la organización para llevar adelante esta práctica en sus comunicaciones, de esta manera abordar sistemicamente la idea teniendo en cuenta como se detallo anteriormente, las personas y procesos de negocio involucrados.

Esto nos puede llevar a la conclusión de que el uso de weblogs corporativos es una oportunidad para desarrollar y entrenar equipos bajo las directrices de participación, colaboración y toma autónoma de decisiones para aglutinar sinergias en redes de conversaciones. Esta es una importante misión para el nuevo rol del profesional de relaciones públicas

Esta tecnología es una gran palanca de acción para la construcción de una organización con conversaciones participativas y reflexivas de sus puntos de vista y modelos mentales, y desde nuestro rol de director de comunicaciones o consultores externos, es imperativo darle dirección para lograr la condición heterarquica sobre el flujo de comunicaciones que esta herramienta supone en el mundo virtual. Las capacidades de liderazgo y las competencias de coaching para acompañar este proceso en este aspecto adquieren una relevancia crítica.

En consecuencia, implementar blogs corporativos tanto para comunicaciones internas como externas requiere mucho más que la misma tecnología. Sostengo que las ideas, los valores y la imaginación son los tres componentes que hacen de la tecnología una ventaja competitiva y un valor en si misma. De nada servirá el intento de implementar y obtener los beneficios de los weblogs en una organización donde no existen equipos sinérgicos y bajo una visión que cuelga de un bonito cartel, pero no esta en el corazon de las personas.

Operar desde el lenguaje propio de las organizaciones es un gran punto de partida para intervenir en procesos más intensos que requiere la implementación efectiva de los weblogs. Es importante recordar que el valor o ventaja competitiva de esta herramienta no la hace la tecnología, sino mas bien el compromiso de las personas que la utilizan. El lenguaje además de conformar la propia esencia de la organización, conforma las propias competencias conversacionales que limitan o expanden las posibilidades y oportunidades de crecimiento de si misma.

La empresa Blog exige pasar de una emocionalidad del miedo, muy actual en las organizaciones, a una emocionalidad de confianza, donde sus participantes, mediante la apertura de un dialogo reflexivo, inician la posibilidad de abrir y compartir distintos puntos de vista hacia la libertad de indagar, dialogar y reflexionar las hipótesis de certidumbre de cada persona o equipos involucrados. Es importante poner énfasis en la construcción de una visión compartida para explicitar los valores, fines y discursos de identidad de la organización en el alcance de esta herramienta.

Es por esta razón que la practica de las modernas Relaciones Públicas requieren trabajar con en convergencia de distintas disciplinas, entre ellas destaco las competencias de coaching y la importancia de pensar esta herramienta desde una perspectiva sistémica.

Matias Fernandez (Argentina)

Author: Matias Fernandez | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 0 comments
Category: @ Matias Fernandez | Topic 5 State of PR Profession

Tomorrow's PR Today

Where PR is Going and How to Make Sure You Get There First

To predict the future of PR it's first important to assess the forces that are shaping the media today:

1. The Internet is becoming the default news source for millions

People are turning not only to direct sources like CNN, The Drudge Report and targeted niche operations like BusinessKnowledgeSource.com; but to indirect news sources like Google News, Yahoo News, and Topix.net which aggregate news from other sources. Increasingly, people are choosing to view the stories (and frankly to get the entertainment) they choose to receive on their schedule, rather than reading a paper or watching / listening to news.

2. This trend has already and will increasingly cut into media revenues and profits

3. Media sources will make cuts in the news gathering and reporting process

4. Editors and reporters will be even more time-crunched and stressed than they are today (hard to imagine)

5. It will be harder for those seeking free publicity to get the attention they need and to generate the results they desire

6. Editors and reporters will increasingly turn to
a. sources that save them time
b. trusted sources that consistently generate powerful information, stories and leads

7. Media sources, with declining audiences and news resources will focus on
a. Preserving local audiences by localizing and personalizing national stories
b. Taking quality information provided by trusted sources and delivering it almost as is
c. Generating fresh stories that will draw the attention of local and possibly national audiences (local scandals, local business becoming big, local disasters, etc.)
d. Providing entertainment as part of the news process

Doesn't this list sound familiar? Isn't this exactly what's happening today? What's key to realize is that the Internet has increased the media's pain, accelerating this process to an even higher rate.

Given these changes, bright PR seekers will carefully consider their public relations tactics and change them to fit the trends.

Implications for PR practitioners:

1. Relationships are key

Gone are the days of achieving success by appearing on a reporter's radar screen twice a year when you've got some news. Now you need to be carefully creating and cultivating relationships with key media sources who have the interest and the power to run your stories.

This means that you need to constantly give what they really need - real news, stories, leads, impactful quotes, even if these don't build your business in any way. Think of it this way - who will a reporter turn to in question - the source that exclusively pitches their company, or the one who gives them a consistent set of great leads that turn into powerful stories, only occasionally pitching a story that involves his company?

2. You NEED an active, powerful, online presence

Reporters, producers and editors increasingly turn to the Internet for research, rather than the telephone or the directories of the past. You need an online media room; a powerful, frequently updated blog; and most importantly, a search engine presence so that media people will repeatedly encounter your name in their research.

He who has the best search engine presence and the most links, wins.

Isn't it interesting how the net has changed our world?

By the way, you can get those links both through natural search engine positioning and through buying pay per click advertising, (which can place you on the first page of the search engine listings.) At least 50% of the media calls I receive come from my pay per click advertising. For more information on how pay per click works, check out The Pay Per Click Money Machine

3. You should regularly produce excellent articles of journalistic quality

If a reporter with 5 stories on his docket stumbles upon your story that's just as good as he would write himself, he's likely to save his time and simply run your story. plus bookmarking your story archive for future story needs.

Create a schedule and system to create a never-ending series of articles.

A great way to do this is with tip sheets, quizzes and surveys - which not only make interesting reading, but great filler material for that last remaining 6 column inches of space.

4. You need to have your name and stories showing up consistently in GoogleNews and Yahoo! News

These tools have become powerful story archives and story generating sources for the media. You need to be included.

Unfortunately, doing so is tough, because both of these outlets carefully screen the news outlets they include. However, if you deliver great articles that carry bylines and get run by major and even local media, you too can have your stories showing up in these sources.

Google and Yahoo news can also be a source to identify journalists who cover your topic area, to generate news story ideas and to increase your targeted media relationships. Two articles that cover this in more detail are How To Use Google News To Get More PR and Competitive Drafting: Getting Effortless PR By Letting Your Competitors Do The Work!

5. Recognize the power of video and audio in helping media sources to choose to call you rather than your competition

Besides your writing, video and audio can be great tools to help expand your impact with the media. Journalists and producers want to know whether you'll be a good interview - let them see or hear you do it. Add video and audio clips to your site, add presentations that illustrate your story, and create video news releases where appropriate. Give them the tools to recognize you as the great information source that you truly are.

6. Learn to wisely use email to pitch stories

Email's both a powerful tool and a curse for the media. Most hate the huge amount of unwanted email (note - if you send a press release or even a story pitch to someone who doesn't want it, you've just spammed them - think about it, and make sure that you carefully target your emails) but most love the ease of obtaining and developing story pitches through email.

Email (and RSS, by the way) will be powerful tools in the future of PR. Learn to use it well by writing powerful subject lines, great lead sentences, pithy pitches, and leaving them wanting more. Hang something out there that sparks curiosity and forces them to contact you for closure. By learning these skills, you can turn email into one of your most powerful PR tools.

7. Learn to stand out

Journalists see hundreds, often thousands of pitches a day. What are you doing to stand out? How are you different than everyone else?

Different doesn't mean a box of pink feathers carefully cradling your latest media release, it means providing great leads and stories that are better than everyone else's.

Once again, content rules. Standing out does no good if your content (the quality, news or entertainment value of the story that you are pitching) is weak. When in doubt, create great content, that will always win.

One other factor to consider is the entertainment value of your pitches. How can you make your stories fun, funny, or thought-provoking. These won't always win, but definitely have a place in tomorrow's media world.

All of this involves work, and it certainly steps beyond the traditional press release blasts, phone pitching stories, and backslapping journalists. It takes recognition of change, ability to quickly learn and adopt new technologies, and a willingness to take risk.

But as you do so, you'll become that trusted source who not only makes the media's job easier, but who helps them to build their careers by giving them great news and entertaining pieces that gather them praise, awards and promotions.

So it's all up to you. Are you going to continue the old ways which are rapidly becoming dinosaurs, or are you going to make the mind- and skill-set changes that will make you a powerful public relations practitioner for the next decade?

Let me know your results!

Author: Don Crowther | Jul 16, 04 | Permalink | 1 comments
Category: @ Don Crowther | Topic 5 State of PR Profession

The Seth Godin Interview

Global PR Blog Week Day 5: The Seth Godin Interview

As PR Machine's producer, Robb Hecht, evangelizes the technological integration of blogs and RSS with brand advancement within the public relations practice, we were overjoyed during Global PR Blog Week 1.0 to get the opportunity to interview Seth Godin, former Yahoo! VP of Marketing, named "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by Business Week and author of five best-selling marketing books including Free Prize Inside, Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Ideavirus, Big Red Fez, Survival is Not Enough and Purple Cow.

Given Godin's expertise in permission marketing and the online space (not particularly PR), PR Machine solicited Seth Godin, the famed marketing guru, to comment on the integration of blogging, branding and PR based on his blog posting dated June 19, 2004 entitled Brand Journalism.

QUESTIONS FOR SETH GODIN

PR MACHINE: Does the Seth Godin brand have any particular advice to the PR industry in terms of effectively and ethically using the Internet medium via blogging?

SETH GODIN: Two moms are talking. One mom says, "Oy vey! My son is going to become a lawyer! He's so smart and so good and I don't know where we went wrong." The other mother consoles her... "at least he's not going into PR."

The giant upheaval for marketers is that the 'channels' of media (newspaper, radio, TV, net) are exploding in number while simultaneously imploding in impact. As a result, a plug on Oprah or in the New York Times (the survivors) is priceless, while just about all the rest doesn't matter as much as it used to. So... blogging looks tempting. Blogging looks like an easy way to get ink, an easy way to get your message out there. Bloggers, after all, are amateurs, right.

The problem is that this medium is amateur at its best. Amateur which means tha