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Archives for November 2010

National Media Vitamin D Confusion

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I had no intention of posting today; in fact, I liked my post yesterday, Thoughts on Public Relations, and wanted it to stay front and center one more day.

But this morning’s news stories in our two national papers (sorry USA Today) for the first time I can recall conflict. I’m shocked and keep reading each story to ensure I’m not seeing things or my brain is misfiring. It’s not:

  • In the Wall Street Journal (everyone knows I read it each morning and it’s my muse for blog fodder) in Personal Journal is the story “Triple That Vitamin D Intake, Panel Prescribes” by Melinda Beck. I read that column and reached for my Vitamin D capsule and promptly popped it. Beck’s reporting is taken from “a long-awaited report from the Institute of Medicine to be released Tuesday.”

How on earth can two highly credible, national reporters cover the same report to be released today with two opposite angles?

Should consumers triple their intake of Vitamin D as encouraged in the Wall Street Journal, or should we avoid Vitamin D and calcium because we already get enough, according to the New York Times?

Media Relations Strategy Gone Awry

As a media relations expert, I am disturbed as a professional with these stories. Knowing how national media work, it’s obvious the reporters each got an advance with the institute issuing the report.

  • But, how on Earth did the media relations practitioners not know the angles these two reporters would take and recognize each was covering the story from opposite ends of the spectrum?
  • Should the finger point at media relations?
  • Were spokespeople trained appropriately and was there a message map created?
  • Should the finger point at the spokespeople toplining highlights of the research during media interviews ?
  • Was the strategy to give each paper a different angle?
  • Was there a media strategy?

The national media must clarify the angles they took to cover this research, and that can only happen IF my recommended public relations strategy was executed right now:

  • Issue a press release clarifying to the nation whether consumers need more Vitamin D or not (and calcium).
  • Issue an Internet press release to crawl the Web immediately to rectify the news.
  • Use social media for this entire week to clarify the news about Vitamin D.
  • Launch a special website with highlights of the research and share the clarified message.
  • Put the spokespeople in front of the national morning show circuit to fix the damage these two stories have done.
  • Immediately contact each reporter with the appropriate news peg and asking for their help to rectify the news.

In my 26 years in public relations with a specialty in media relations, I’ve never seen anything like this. Astonishing.

Thoughts on Public Relations

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On occasion I read O’Dwyers, a public relations trade magazine with regular features and listings of specialty public relations and firms. The November 2010 technology issue provided interesting blog fodder about the future of public relations.

Jack O’Dwyer, editor-in-chief, reported on comings and goings at the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Assembly Oct. 16, 2010 during which delegates debated the future of public relations in 2015. His editorial is disjointed and not easily understood unless one had attended the assembly, apparently (this, of course, is my opinion after reading his column).

To get to the crux of the matter, various issues were addressed during the assembly, which I’ll recap here for the sake of our own discussion:

APR Designation

It seems PRSA itself is divided about the profession and voted in favor of keeping those professionals without the accredited public relations (APR) designation off the board. The vote, 173 against/104 in favor, was the first in 30 years.

  • I elected not to go after APR, yet there are many who have. It requires investment of time, professional dues, volunteerism, and finances – many things a budding professional in the agency world cannot afford. Instead, I became president of the Publicity Club of Chicago and sat on its board for more than six years. I gave my time willingly to publish the annual media directory (countless hours) and innovated the Let’s Do Lunch Live Auction where we invited media to auction themselves to the highest bidder for lunch (was an excellent and fun fund-raiser for the club).
  • No one I knew back in the day willingly shared the APR designation with their name unless they were trying to keep up with the Joneses ala physicians or nurses (notorious for adding every credential to a signature).
  • How does this vote affect the future of public relations? It doesn’t. Those folks running PRSA inclined to keep only APRs on their board will not have the fortune and privilege of knowing professionals the likes of me and my peers. (Feels much like the “men-only” country clubs, doesn’t it?)

The Press

Mr. O’Dwyer shares copy from several slides in his editorial; however, there is no attribution. I have no idea who said:

  • “The concept of news and its corresponding news value…is being diluted if not dissolved.”
  • “New media is creating healthy skepticism about the truthfulness of media.”
  •  “The de-professionalism of traditional media and arguably, PR.”
  • “PR people must embrace integrated marketing communications to reach highly distracted publics in a competitive communications environment.”

Hmm, not sure why that section was called “the press;” should’ve been called “the lament.”

In particular, I’m agog in re “practitioners must embrace integrated marketing communications.” Really? What PR person doesn’t already know they need to work all sides of the aisle and embrace our sisters in marketing, advertising, digital, new media, and anyone else vying for the illusive marketing dollar?  

No longer is public relations pure. (That’s where I launched my career — as a purist, conducting media relations daily and becoming a pitch pro selling news to media. It was how I defined my career, but no longer.) Public relations professionals who elect to remain pure and execute traditional media relations, special events, thought leadership, and influencer relations without integrating practices of marketing, new media, and advertising cannot survive.

There are a few more choice remarks in the column referenced here, and I’m going to save them for my next post. Meanwhile, what thoughts might you have to add to mine?

Giving Thanks

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Saying thank you should be an every-day occurrence; yet, many of us don’t take the time to appreciate those around us for their friendship, business, support, kindness, respect, acknowledgment, help, sharing, love, or giving.

I appreciate everyone I’ve met in the social media world and those I’ve not had the privilege of speaking with. I appreciate the learning, banter, comaraderie, laughs, intelligence, and most of all new friendships and business partnerships.

To you and yours, I wish you peace and give thanks to you for contributing to me.

THANK YOU!!

Blogging Under Cover

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Credit: lockergnome.com

There’s something about having few subscribers and few comments to a blog that’s a gift in disguise. Can you imagine what that might be?

This week, I read Danny Brown’s blog post about criticism mentioning the “natives getting restless” and how he had unsubscribed from A-lister blogger Chris Brogan’s blog because Danny thought Chris was snarky. Two days later, I read Chris Brogan’s blog post about criticism – accepting it and receiving it well which mentioned Danny Brown’s blog post and his unsubscribe action. Chris was surprised because he felt Danny was a regular commenter on his blog.

Do you understand what I’m getting at?

The responsibility Chris Brogan takes to “write 4,000 words daily and post about four times a day” is a choice no one else is making that I’m aware of in the blogging world. The pressure he puts on himself to consistently ideate, deliver, respond and repeat on a daily basis is astonishing. When other award-winning bloggers who also generate high-level content begin to bicker with peers in the space  that’s when I’m glad I blog under cover.

Everyone has an opinion, and when leaders begin to comment about leaders, that’s when we bloggers attempting to adopt the lead in something can be glad we’re not. What I find fascinating about how we perceive people in social media is that the words, emoticons, punctuation, LOLs, avatars, tone, and, style form the basis for perception – all without benefit of hearing the spoken presentation (unless there’s a video or webinar to put voice to words).

I’m not sure who’s really getting restless – the social media A-lister blogger leaders who day in and day out must generate topics and content to feed the hungry masses, or we bloggers under cover who can easily sneak away into oblivion without anyone batting an eye lash.

Auto Makers Tap Twitter Influencers

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Intriguing article in The Wall Street Journal on November 15, 2010 “Tweeting to Sell Cars; Auto Makers Turn to Social Media Influencers for Buzz.”

Basically, the piece is about Ford, Lexus and Toyota tapping social media heavyweights to help influence followers on Twitter and push brand and new cars. Where traditionally celebrities were engaged to tout new vehicles, now the likes of Brian Solis, a disc jockey, and Baratunde Thurston, web editor of the Onion, are being tapped to push autos down followers’ throats.

How do you feel about that?

Brian Solis is in my stream; he doesn’t follow me, but I regard him as an A-lister, for sure. Would I pause if he began tweeting about a brand more than five times a day? Absolutely, and then he’d lose credibility in my book. We all agree social media is supposed to be monetized. Kudos to those who do it well ala Brian Solis.

Being a Twitterati is more about creating community in my book, but it’s also about replying and connecting. The only time my tweet was acknowledged by Brian was when the product I bought from him was late by five weeks (and it messed up my presentation).

In the case of the large auto makers, their scale is global. To them numbers talk, and we are, after all, a numerical society – those with the highest numbers of followers get the nod from outsiders but not necessarily from we on the inside.

What’s your impression of Twitterati, corporate America tapping social media influencers, and whether that strategy works with the grassroots tweeps? I’d love to hear your impression on this one!