Why we should care about our bad reputation

Earlier today I was reading a post by Bill Sledzik, PR and the 'chick factor': What Kent State learned about the missing men of public relations. Sledzik and his students conducted a survey to help determine why many public relations programs and the profession are dominated by women. One quote from a non PR student was pretty telling. 

"...it's harder to tell if a woman is lying, so they're probably better at the job," said the student. It's easy to roll my eyes and say that this young man is clearly misinformed. However, I wonder how much this is a representation of how most people view public relations. 

One of the problems with our profession's image is the average person has very little contact with a public relations professional. Unless they have a relative in the PR business, the first time many people encounter PR is after college. That is why characters such as Samantha Jones from Sex and the City heavily influence perceptions. People do not have a reality to compare the fictional representation against. I've personally been compared to Samantha Jones more times than I would like to count. 

I think the best thing we can do is get to high school students early. Have PRos come in to career centers and speak in classes. Even those who do not go into PR will have an accurate perception of who we are and what we do. 

Photo by Discoodoni

Interview with Christopher Lynn about Twitter

Last week I had the opportunity to interview Christopher Lynn of Shift Communications, who also writes the blog SocialTNT. Chris spoke about many of the benefits of twitter for PRos. You can download the first edition of the How I learned to stop worrying and love PR podcast.

A thin line

A City University of New York student, Heidi Cee posted fliers around the campus pleading for help after losing her Coach bag. Cee later claimed the person who turned in her bag, actually deceived her and gave her a counterfeit purse.

This prompted her into action, writing posts on her blog, and eventually organizing an anti-counterfeiting event.

If you think this sounds like a dream come true for an anti-counterfeiting organization, you're half right. Heidi Cee was all dream and no truth.

That is because a class of City University of New York public relations students made her up as part of a campaign for the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC), which sponsored the class.

A recent Adweek Article covers every detail of the incident. It is a great case study.

The sad thing is, these student's plan almost worked. Cee's site received 48,000 hits its first week and more than 700 visitors signed an online pledge against counterfeit goods.

There is some controversy, but I doubt it will damage Coach's sales. As a advocate of increased transparency, I find it depressing when an elaborate hoax proves largely effective.

Photo by SummerTX

Bribing Bloggers

With traditional media there are rules. You cannot bribe a journalist. There are laws against that sort of thing. Bloggers do not have these kinds of rules. Should we as public relations professionals rejoice at the new possibility of offering gifts in exchange for favorable blog posts?

I read two interesting blog posts recently about the topic. In a recent post Chris Brogan wrote "If you want us to write about your software app or your new gizmo, give a few away." Many of his twitter friends appeared to agree.

However, another post by Jason Falls presented a different view point.

"Shwag, in fact, normally gets you outed and made fun of," wrote Falls. "They want to know you understand who they are, what interests their blog serves and then what their audience is interested in." The comments appear to agree with his post.

Clearly there seems to be some disagreement about whether or not bribing bloggers will work. I am inclined to agree with both Brogan and Falls. I have no issue with a company giving free stuff to a celebrity in order to get the media coverage of the celebrity wearing or using a product. Bloggers are the same way. They are individuals and have the right to accept money or stuff for their endorsement. However, if bloggers continue this practice, and the products are not actually worthy of their endorsement they will ultimately lose credibility.

I also agree with Falls that giving bloggers free stuff does not usually work. While I do not see any real moral implications with bribing bloggers, I believe that making personal, genuine connections with bloggers is more effective. Ultimately, this is what Brogan is advocating as well.

Add your twitter status to your blog

I just figured out how to add my twitter status to my blog. Here is the link to a post describing how to do it for those of you who are interested.

Twitta-What?

Today I did it. I signed up for twitter. I heard about twitter earlier this year when I stumbled across an online show Epic Fu. I had avoided signing up because I already had facebook status, and did not see a reason to sign up for one more annoying online service. Today, when I read the PR Squared post: Get into twitter or get outta public relations, I was finally convinced to sign up. It's an excellent post, and I highly recommend reading it.

Low and behold, 9 people in my address book are already on twitter. Interestingly enough, all of them are public relations students or professionals. I have to wonder if twitter will ever turn into a mainstream phenomenon. Also, if the reason for getting on twitter is for career advancement and success, how honest should I be on my twitter updates. With every update should I consider if it is the type of post I would want a potential employer to see?

I am already conscious of my online persona. Although, I have always desired to keep my work and personal spheres separate. I wonder if social media has permanently merged the two.

Workin' It: The differences between agency work and internal government

I was recently linked by my instructor Kelli Matthews to a post by unSpun on Shift Communications. The post was basically going over the difficulties of agency work, and the beneficial highs that keep many professionals going. As someone who has not actually worked in an agency, I found this very interesting.
At my current position I am not sure I would call what I do public relations. I spend very little time trying to communicate with the public. Instead, the majority of my work consists of documenting success stories for government funded initiatives, in order to later communicate those stories to the state legislature.
The goal is convince the legislature to renew funding for these initiatives. The work I do requires the same skills, but is essentially different because I am not trying to reach my target audience through any other media. I am not alone though. More and more in public relations many professionals are reaching their audiences directly. I think the same responsibilities and concerns still apply as when you are reaching out to your audience through the media.


View the original unSpun post here.