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PR, Business Development & Today’s News

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Today’s news in the Wall Street Journal “Marketplace” section is chock full of opportunities for some PR peeps. Let me share (although I see they’re getting stingy with their story links and wanting $ so I promise to find other sources for links) and see if you agree and can go get some new business in your neck of the woods using these features below:

** WellPoint (aka Anthem) is asking hospitals to increase patient quality and reduce re-admissions otherwise the hospitals will not get payment increases as high as they used to. WellPoint is going to score hospitals on a test with 51 indicators for patient treatment quality. The indicators include preventing patients from relapse, following a safety checklist and patient satisfaction.

“The change is part of a broader shift within the health industry to compensate providers based on the quality of their care, instead of the volume of tests and treatments they perform. Next year, as part of the health-overhaul law, the Obama administration will rework how the government pays hospitals through Medicare so facilities with better-quality treatment outcomes get higher reimbursements,” said the

$$ — Public Relations Opportunity: Hospital marketing/PR departments need to educate physicians/providers on this new change that will cascade throughout all payers. It only takes the first one to cause the entire industry to follow suit, and the pressure will be on providers to deliver higher-quality treatment rather than higher volume. Having worked in health care marketing my entire career, hospitals focus less on provider relations and more on patient relations. There’s an opportunity to create integrated programs to help push quality treatment from all sides of the health care equation. In addition, PR can share these stories with patients (old, new and soon-t0-be) that quality treatment is a first priority.

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is taking a hit with Japan still re-building after the quake that ruptured an entire industry. Demand for vehicles is rebounding, and U.S. dealerships are struggling with a shortage of Lexus, Honda and Toyota brands.

$$ — Public Relations Opportunity: Any U.S. dealerships that sell autos made in the good ‘ol US of A should pounce on this opportunity to sell American cars, especially fuel-efficient American cars. We’re inundated with advertising campaigns to sell us cars; but, what about a PR campaign that’s solid and education oriented? I always liked the programs by auto repair shops that taught women what’s under the hood.

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— Have you ever known a publisher to execute a PR campaign? GASP! Imagine if they did; perhaps that’s the way publishers get us to pay $455/year to get the Wall Street Journal online, in print and digital.

$$ — Public Relations Opportunity: Start engaging in social media, publishers and create a loyal community for the brand. Because, just like law firms, people are dedicated to a personality — the reporter who writes a favorite column or story. Because we can’t buy a year’s print subscription for $10 any more, we consumers of news are going to need some help keeping loyal with publishers’ brands and not reading at the local library.

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: No surprise here and a good PR idea…digital publisher Rosetta-Books, LLC is giving away digital editions of five classic titles (now movies) to jump start sales of online books. The promotion launched May 7 and ends June 3.

$$ — Public Relations Opportunity — E-book publishers are going to need to keep PR top of mind to ensure digital book readers keep the money flowing. I’m not sure how all this is going to work unless PR is adopted by authors and publishers. Perhaps authors are going to need to use PR/social media even more so on their own i.e. book signings, appearances at special events, social media engagement, and direct marketing.

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There’s another struggling to get people to buy the product after all the cool re-vamp re packaging, displays and what about the taste? Have you tried that stuff lately? My kid loves the Chicken and Stars, but man, I cannot eat that without hot sauce.  So, PR teams inside and at agencies — how about a cook off contest using Campbell Soup as the foundation? And, I’m not talking about mom’s famous casserole with all those cream-based cans of fat.

 

 

 

Introducing PR Justice League!

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And out of a tweet was born an idea that’s caught on with caterpillar legs…introducing The International PR Justice League!

Several in the field have been identifying blog posts that blast public relations and shove a dagger in the side of our credibility, and these damaging posts are sometimes from folks within the ranks (perhaps from newer practitioners) who issue broad-brush generalities against the profession at large.

Of late, folks have had their blood boiling more than most (me among them) about this, and a tweet between Beatriz Alemar of BlackCat Strategy spawned her idea, tongue in cheek, for the PR Justice League.  Immediately, it took off:

  • Danielle Kelly, APR, of Canada, signed on immediately even before she knew what the heck this thing would morph into.
  • Someone said we needed costumes (the color pink by Erica Allison); I suggested purple and Shonali Burke said they had to be midnight purple or eggplant to go with her skin tone (who’s not vain?).
  • I put out the call for a logo contest and Steve Lichtie in Scotland jumped in to suggest we call it the “International” PR Justice League and suggested purple spandex for the costumes, ahem, and a location for our first meeting on a desert island.
  • I suggested a badge to recognize members of the PR Justice League, and then I went and registered the domain, just in case.

But, wait! Is the cart before the horse? What exactly will this be and what will it do?

The International PR Justice League

Objectives

  • Uphold the image, credibility and professionalism of public relations
  • Develop a community to “police” the profession for un-justice to the field of public relations
  • Educate while negating content that portrays public relations as unprofessional

Strategies

  • Invite PR practitioners from respective countries to represent their regions
  • Monitor PR community for anti-profession sentiment and provide opposing educational views via a blog squad.
  • Showcase best-practices and case studies to oppose negativity and educate audiences about strategic public relations

Audiences

  • Peers in public relations offering negative views of profession
  • Peer bloggers
  • New members of Justice League to be blog squad
  • Clients, business owners
  • Marketing and advertising sisters
  • Students in PR and newcomers to the field

Tactics

  • Develop a badge for recognized Justice League members; illustrate a cartoon character in passion purple (spandex?) as the symbol of balance and voice of PR.  All suggestions can be delivered to @balemar who is leading the charge on our graphics.
  • Enlist the blog squad when an issue arises and ask for an author to analyze and rebut on this blog or their own; however, everyone will be made aware that a Justice League blog has been published.
  • Address the basics and demonstrate best practices i.e. Public Relations vs. Publicity (there’s a hot crisis about this right now) and other topics – measurement (ad value equivalency), etc.
  • Invite blog posts and case studies about good PR to educate incoming, young and seasoned professionals, clients, and others about what we do.

Membership

To be considered a member, you will need to showcase your passion for the profession by upholding the image of the industry, actively educating others and rebutting unnecessary attacks on the industry.

We’ll soon be building an International PR Justice League page on this site with a membership “application” for your completion.  We’ll want to know what you’ve been up to lately to uphold our profession. And, members can be invited and recommended by peers, as well.

There’s a lot to consider, and because we’re in public relations, someone has an idea to make this even better; what did we miss?

 

We’ve Defined PR, By Jove!

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It was inevitable this journey in frustration and innovation (or innovative frustration) had to culminate somehow. After 15 (?) blog posts in this series where I, supported by you = we, try to earn consensus on defining public relations, it’s time to close phase one of this discussion with the grand finale about What Is PR, or What PR Is (whichever way you’d like to read that).

Now, mind you, we’ve reached a semblance of consensus and that is “no one can agree on a single definition of PR.” And, the sweat equity invested in this exercise by moi and many others has been fierce. I think I lost weight.

In one of the most recent posts in this series,  I tried to take it to a different level…down to fifth-grade understanding. In that article, I included a collection of simplified definitions by Beth Harte (please hire her for her next position); Erica Allison, Heidi Siefkas, Shakirah Dawud, Gini Dietrich, and me.

That blog garnered a high number of comments from the likes of PR credibles including Patty Swisher, John Falchetto, Danielle Kelly, Davina Brewer, JGoldsborough, and nearly all of those folks quoted in the original article.

While no one settled on a singular definition (and the very long one I tried to cull from about 50 different definitions went down in flames as jargon), I tossed out two very simple definitions without much thought:

1. Public relations (uses technology to) creates relationships with everyone, everywhere.

(This one was preferred by Gini Dietrich yet some took an opposing view to “technology” because we can do PR with a simple handshake or posted letter.)

2. Public Relations helps people say the right things to the right audiences at the right time.

This second attempt was made to truly simplify the definition of PR for any audience imaginable; it was acknowledged by Danielle Kelly who is a Canadian practitioner also known as a reputation fiend!

Why I’m bringing up this last simple definition again is this:

Today, many in the PR community gathered over at Waxing Unlyrical, Shonali Burke’s blog, to share disbelief about a young’un in the PR profession who took measurement to task by comparison to ad value equivalency. Shonali wrote a rebuttal to that poor, un-knowing PR newbie that appeared in PR Daily today.

(Please stay with me, I’m getting to the punch line…)

At the bottom of Shonali’s rebuttal in PR Daily she writes: “All of these are examples of impact that can be measured; impact that can be quantified; impact that tells you you’re telling the right story, to the right people, at the right time, and in the right way.”

Let me show you the punch line if you missed it:

I defined public relations on March 28, 2011 as:

Public Relations helps people say the right things to the right audiences at the right time.

Shonali Burke defined PR impact as:

…telling the right story, to the right people, at the right time, and in the right way.

I think we need only to adopt one more “right” from Shonali and make it all alright — please excuse my shouting from the rooftops:

PUBLIC RELATIONS HELPS PEOPLE SAY THE RIGHT THINGS TO THE RIGHT AUDIENCES AT THE RIGHT TIME AND IN THE RIGHT WAY.

By jove, I think we’ve got it…!…?

 

 

 

 

Debating PR: Reactive or Proactive?

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It was a blog post like this that started it all – that fateful day on the New York Times Small Business Blog when a Long Island haughty restaurateur accused the entire public relations profession of being crazy (no more link love from me). That’s when my guest author Jenn Whinnem responded, and a series was born – What is PR?

A colleague of mine, @DawnComber, who is also a featured Momaraderie, pointed out Adam Singer’s blog post of March 31 and asked my reaction. You see, she’s been watching in the wings and reading quietly without comment as I attempt to corral the Mustangs with a single definition of public relations with consensus. (The grand finale happens this week, after a series of more than 13 blog posts on this topic.)

And, so, to my chagrin, I read Mr. Singer’s blog (link above) post “PR Needs to Shift From Reactive to Proactive”  however I did it in fits and starts.  My blood began to boil in the first graph where I’m told PR practitioners need to “become truly proactive in their approach to the practice; simply, from reactive to proactive.”

I read this to suggest everyone in PR is reactive; we don’t plan, we’re not proactive, and basically we’re tactical and useless.

Next graph written by Mr. Singer: “Media companies are far more proactive than reactive. They plan their content through editorial calendars. Their leadership teams have the executive perspective on content and have a long-term vision with the goal of influencing an industry. They react to news and happenings, but they plan for it.”

STOP.

  • Is Mr. Singer suggesting PR leaders do not have a long-term vision with the goal of influencing an industry? I beg to differ; influencers are our bread and butter; strategic/long-term planning that aligns directly with an organization’s business goals is how we execute against a PLAN.
  • By the way, Mr. Singer, the use of ed cals is a highly tactical and only somewhat strategic approach to planning; you’re suggesting media companies (do you mean magazines?) that use a content calendar should be labeled strategic?
  • How can someone plan to react? PR is often prepared to react, and that’s called crisis communications. Good media relations professionals are always prepared to react to national news so they can tie in their story and pitch media with an associated angle and a hot influencer to help tell the story.

The PR practitioners I know are always prepared for tomorrow’s news, especially those who work in publicity and media relations. That’s why we consume news from “media companies (?)” and social platforms, etc. to anticipate and be prepared for the future.

Next up on Mr. Singer’s blog:

“I’m convinced that public relations practitioners need to flip their thinking. Simply: from reactive to proactive. But only if they can become truly proactive in their approach to the practice. And the 30% of proactive PR most companies and agencies spend in proactive mode? It’s probably wasted.”

STOP ME FROM BEING STRANGLED.

So, finally, I think I understand. Mr. Singer believes there are only 30 percent of companies and agencies (not PR practitioners) that are proactive. I’m not certain a firm or company can take credit for being proactive without a visionary public relations and integrated marketing team leading the way.

“Most PR professionals flirt from opportunity to opportunity.” (Is Mr. Singer implying we flit from or flirt with opportunities?) I’ve not flitted from client to client in years; yet I’m always on the lookout for the next slice of my pie to fill my business development pipeline. Incidentally, “most?” PR people do this? That’s an amazing generality without proof.

We all know that PUBLIC RELATIONS IS NOT JUST PUBLICITY. Perhaps this is where the confusion in this post lies? The breadth of the public relations profession is being boiled and simmered into this singular blog post. The Public Relations profession has been taking a global beating in the last several months, and there are several of us trying to flip that around to prove our value, credibility and status as professional influencers within our respective vertical markets.

I do agree most people need to be more strategic in how they approach business; but, I’m hard pressed to imply an entire profession is tactical and without influence.

It’s blog posts like this that become choke holds on our collective efforts, and it’s so unsettling to me that this post comes from someone within the profession who should know better than to make generalities for thousands of PR practitioners many of them indeed strategic who do influence brand by aligning communications strategy with business goals .

Before I go any further, let me give Mr. Singer the kudos he deserves. Adam Singer works in public relations; he’s a peer although we’ve never interacted before today as far as I know. Here are his credentials I’ve taken from his blog; you can see for yourself:

  • The Future Buzz is the digital marketing and PR blog of Adam Singer, social media practice director for Lewis PR.
  • His blog, The Future Buzz, receives from 30,000 to more than 200,000 unique visitors per month, depending on the type of content he creates (extracted from his blog).
  • More than 7,000 web professionals, marketers, PR people and bloggers/social media users subscribe to Adam Singer’s content via  RSS and email (data from his blog site).

I’m impressed with Mr. Singer’s analytics and blog subscribers; not sure my little one-year-old blog will ever reach those admirable numbers.

Mr. Singer’s blog post rankled me; I’m sensitive after having adopted this journey for more than a month to define public relations and facilitate discussion within the profession. There are so many generalities in this content targeting public relations as a whole that are just false; yet they are stated on an influential blog with 7,000+ subscribers.

Credibility in public relations has always been something we strive for as professionals. None of us need a thorn like this from someone working in our very own profession.

(Image: SEOConsultants)

She Says No Need To Define PR for Grandma

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Davina Brewer of 3 Hats Communications writes a snappy blog chock full of opinion and pizazz. Here, in her comment (with permission) I extracted from my blog post “Should We Define PR for Fifth Graders?” Davina shares her thoughts on this debatable exercise. Thanks, Davina!

Davina Brewer, 3 Hats Communications

Davina Brewer of 3 Hats Communications Says:

1) No we should not define PR or public relations for a 5th grader or grandparent. Not at the expense of oversimplifying or limiting the scope of PR. Yes I spend most of my days in front of a computer; so do lawyers and accountants and therapists and lots of other folks; that doesn’t define what we do, merely illustrates a little of the mechanics of how we do it.

Maybe for this group, we ask “when was the last time a brand or company impressed you and why?” Maybe the company comped a deal, maybe a brand offers extraordinary service, maybe the answer may have to do with an overall branding strategy that includes good PR and then we can reply, “that’s what we do.” But I don’t know many 5th graders, so not sweating it. ;-)

2) We do need to make the meaning of PR more transparent, less oblique. It’s not a bad thing, because the barrier to me is the talent and ability to do it right, to do it well. Not everyone can be a copywriter, design ads, plan commercials, or orchestrate complicated media buys; those concepts aren’t clear but they aren’t vague to the layperson who at least ‘gets’ a little about advertising.

Public relations practitioners can write well, research and identify stories that others can’t; just met with some reporters a couple weeks ago, one mentioned that in a general interview w/ a biz exec it wasn’t until the END of the meeting that he let slip something good, something really newsworthy. Now it was a deal that maybe needed to be under wraps for a while but it also hinted at me that maybe this company needed some media and PR training per so many of these definitions that cover ‘story telling’ and how PR uses that to communicate.

We can identify the different audiences important to a company, how to communicate effectively with employees and investors, how to manage a crisis, how the HR team needs to work with sales, with support, with customer service, which brings me to:

3) We do need to play nice with the other kids in the sandbox. Integration is one of my schticks so while I don’t like defining PR against other aspects of the marketing mix, I don’t mind putting it in context that strategically integrated PR works to support branding, advertising, social media and other promotional activities to help companies communicate with their target audiences. In terms of publicity, it’s earned vs. paid for media; maybe it’s data mining the R&D or customer support departments, figuring out how high the referral rates are, what a great story that is to tell and how it’s best to tell it: ads, social media, events, etc.

I’ve written one post on this, kinda come back to making it relatable. I asked for examples – something in context that yes friends and family can ‘get’ and that clients can understand and appreciate, per their business goals and objectives – but at the end of the day what matters most to me is that:

I know what GOOD PR is.

I k now how to do my job well.

I can effectively educate my clients on what PR is and is not.

I know when the definition of PR is obfuscated or trivialized in the media, it is important to address the error, correct it.

FWIW