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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?

Calculating Media Impressions

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Back in the day, we measured ROI of a public relations campaign with media impressions. We took a story in the daily newspaper and multiplied the circulation by 2.65 (the number of people we believed read a paper including pass-along rate). That’s how the total number of media impressions was calculated and how the success of a story placement or “hit” was determined.

This equation is still in force today; however, the number of people actually reading a newspaper today is lower and suspect. How can we be sure the headline and lead aren’t the only two pieces of a print story to garner attention?

The other way we measured ROI was to calculate column inches for a story to determine how much ink our placement secured.  Other ways we gauged success was to look at story content, tone, quotes, etc. These measurement tactics for traditional media relations haven’t changed, but the two PR ROI calculations for impressions and ink are archaic.

Yet in today’s Wall Street Journal, I was astonished to see “media impressions” used to describe the success of a campaign by Cricket Communications and Samsung Electronics to open new markets with the “world’s largest fully functioning cell phone, the Samsung Messenger ( 15’ x 11’ x 3’).” Not only did this stunt garner “38 million media impressions (the number of people who may have seen an article, heard something on the radio, watched something on TV, or read something on the Web),” it was entered in the Guinness Book of World Records by payment of nearly $5,000 to make the event official with a judge.

Nowhere in the story today is there mention of social media ROI to calculate campaign success; palpable.

If marketing is inviting public relations to the table to brainstorm events not yet designated world records by Guinness World Records, Ltd., shouldn’t social media as a bona fide strategy be included to calculate campaign success?

The Last PR Frontier — Sales

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There’s not too many departments within an org chart that public relations hasn’t already touched. Methinks sales is the last frontier for public relations to influence, and it’s going to take some serious work.

My day-to-day with several clients is as a strategically aligned member of the marketing team where I blend public relations squarely into the marketing mix. The offering is much like content development, event strategy, creative brainstorming to influence lead generation and, in turn, the support of sales teams who bring in the bacon.

While logically explained, there’s no simple logic behind this mash up (PR and sales). In essence, public relations has swung so far from the sales team that we’re essentially non-existent to frontline sales. Here’s how:

  • PR has no standing among sales.
  • Sales depends on marketing.
  • Marketing beats to its leadership drum.
  • PR aligns communications strategy to business goals (which are sales goals, too).

In a perfect world, here’s what I envision a highly successful business model to look like:

  • Public relations and marketing form a cohesive team with PR feeding program strategy, content, event strategy, social media, media relations, and sales collateral into the team.
  • This marketing/PR team meets regularly with sales, and PR gets a chance to educate sales about its contribution to ROI, results.
  • Public relations attends sales meetings and even conducts trainings on what PR needs from sales to do its job.
  • Sales slowly begins to understand how PR works, and when marketing asks for customers to interview, sales will open InterAction CRM and allow PR to speak with customers for a story.
  • Sales is equipped with a message map completed by public relations so everyone says the same thing to key audiences.
  • Public relations is regarded as high value to the integrated team, and everyone wins.

Is this reality or un-reality to you?

Spanning the Divide: 10 Tips for Public Relations/Sales Synergy

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I’m still absolutely appalled at the lackluster effort by the two sales people at Toyota and Ford dealerships within the last two weeks. If you’ve been following me on occasion, you will know that I’ve been recording the steps by a consumer (me) to purchase a vehicle.

With all the chaos in the automotive industry in the last 18 months, I had assumed/expected better effort by the sales people (one female, one a senior citizen) to earn my business.

The last frontier for public relations must be SALES. I cannot speak for all industries. The TV salesman at H.H. Gregg over the weekend in Indianapolis convinced my aunt to purchase several luxury items; he did a great job. Is it just auto sales we’re talking about, then?

Here are a few tips for public relations practitioners to infiltrate some expertise into the sales mechanism of any company:

1. Messaging. Marketing typically provides product background to sales, but is there a message map developed for the sales team? Message maps are valuable for any spokesperson on the frontlines; sales teams are tier one spokespeople for a company.

2. Training. With a completed message map in hand, train the sales team to use it. Role play and you be the potential customer. Let the sales team get comfortable with the map so everyone uses the same powerful and approved messages.

3. Secret shopping. There’s no better way than to ask a “spy”  to launch the buying process for a product and see how the sales team is performing. Take what’s gleaned from that experience and return to the salespeople with more tips on how to interact with customers.

4. Respect. Everyone in the organization must respect the sales team for its position and role for the company. Ask marketing and sales what tools can be created to assist with this effort.

5. Attend sales meetings. Salespeople have the pulse of the industry and customers at their fingertips. What a treasure of information for public relations. When a PR person attends (you need to get invited), you can identify case study prospects, news hooks, regional news fodder and develop a variety of communications as a result.

6. Sales communications. Treat sales as a tier one target audience. They need to know what’s happening within the company and when public relations learns critical industry information, sales should be informed. Write a newsletter, e-blast, intranet site for sales, or other non-tech method of communication (some salespeople don’t have access to the Internet).

7. Blend with marketing. As the marketing team is oriented to sales quotas, ROI and lead generation, listen to their needs and complement the mix with on-point public relations strategy.

8. Ask the sales team. Communicate. Be a team. Be inclusive. Regard sales as a critical component of the marketing public relations mix.

9. Build trust. For years, sales and public relations has been miles apart with marketing smack in the middle. Until results happen, sales will not regard public relations in the right light. In fact, public relations is likely to be little understood in the sales organization.

10. Try, try again. Try for what works. Synergy does not happen over night, but shame on sales and public relations for not putting forth a consistent effort to make it so.

What other thoughts can you offer?

Map Your Mind and Message

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I’m seeing many blog posts on mind mapping of late. From what I gather, it’s a framework to track program strategy and subsquent tactics and execution.  The images here are boggling in their multiplicity; I had no idea there are nearly 1 million mind map options to click via search engine.

Who among you use these every day? I’m interested in knowing whether it promotes efficiency or becomes just another tool that adds dust to the hard drive.

Mind Map Images from search engine

After a series of posts featuring the “” theme, I’d like to put the horse in front of the cart with a bit on message mapping. Whatever the moniker you prefer, message mapping is NOT mind mapping nor is it a SWOT analysis.

For my clients I represent in a cross-section of industries, message mapping is one of the very first steps we endeavor when launching public relations services.When I speak about message mapping, it doesn’t compare to mind mapping in the least. 

The process for public relations is to dive into the executive mind, extrapolate leading thoughts and opinions, document them as approved messages, and then deliver them to external audiences using various channels.

Sometimes the process can take six weeks; it can be fast tracked to four, and what comes is a working document that provides the external-messaging framework for the C suite, teams, sales, customer service, public relations and marketing.

When I speak messaging with a client, here’s what I like to offer as a process:

  • Facilitation of a gathering of executives who lead a company, its business unit, or subsidiary.
  • Series of open-ended questions that address the 5Ws, the competition, the space, the audience, stakeholders, services, products, and the like.
  • A ~three-hour session with large sticky poster paper to adorn the walls and capture the essence of the discussion.
  • A multiple-page first draft of all the captured statements in themed buckets of messages with a descriptor.
  • Team edit of supporting content and descriptor statement along with subsequent drafts until all messages are approved
  • Placement of messages into a message map framework or schematic (as shown here) that allows for all the messages to be packaged in one document. This sample is an actual message map for a defunct dog treat maker.

Messaging in public relations takes a deeper dive than marketing. And, this public relations deliverable helps everyone develop content and copy; including marketers, storytellers, and copywriters.

I’ve had some interesting discussions with marketers who don’t understand the need for public relations messaging, and I’ve had marketers jump on board with the vision to understand just how valuable this exercise is. While there may be some overlap between PR messaging mapping and marketing’s branding platform, the jargon is omitted and the outcome is external.

When everyone agrees on the song sheet, we all sing in harmony. What’s your process? How do you capture messaging? Please share!