What’s Next?

In a recent article on Bull Dog Reporter, trend spotter Marian Salzman revealed upcoming trends in the world of public relations. According to Salzman, here are a few things we should keep an eye out for.
1. The subprime mortgage mess and what's going to happen as home equity gets eaten away

2. The rise of millennials in the workforce

3. The rise of Chindia (China + India) as an economic power

4. Brand promiscuity where loyalty wanes as savvy consumers increasingly seek and pursue the best deals

5. The rise of intangibles

Now the first three I would say aren’t particularly surprising. The forth seems practical given current economic conditions. However, Salzman gives little explanation about what she means by “the rise of intangibles.”

She goes on to say: “Another trend I think is important, however, we all have too much stuff. We don't need as much. People want to get down to less—we're really seeing a desire for simplicity, and that's going to have an impact on markets and top brands, too.”

Perhaps with our reduced resources and our over consumption, we all will gravitate towards purchasing things that hold value to us, but are intangibles.

One other thing I took away from this article is Salzman described the importance of taking to a varied set of people. In the world of public relations we can become isolated in our own world. I agree with Salzman that it is important to talk to people at every level of the food chain. If we want to truly serve clients, we must have our head in the game.

Photo by: 油姬's

What Reporters want from PRos

Earlier this week my public relations class had the opportunity to sit down with the editors from two of Portland’s alternative weekly newspapers. Kelly Clarke is the Arts and Culture Editor at the Willamette Week and Amy Ruiz is the News Editor at the Portland Mercury.

Both Editors offered their honest perspectives on the relationship between reporters and PRos. Here are some great tips I took away from the conversation

1. Reporters use press releases as background information. Both women said they rarely write a story about a single press release. However, they will file press releases away and search through their email if a related story comes up.

2. Write a short description of your press release in your email. Having a three-sentence description of the press release will allow the reporter to quickly know why you are contacting them, and allowing them to decide quickly if they are interested or not. If your message is too long and complicated, chances are it won’t get heard.

3. Make sure you are sending your email to the right person. This might seem a bit obvious, but both editors said they constantly received emails directed to the wrong department. Both receive hundreds of emails a day and do not always have time to forward the email to the correct person. This also plays into the next tip.

4. Get to know the reporters you are pitching. Both contended that personalize messages sent to three reporters who might have a genuine interest are much more effective and efficient than sending a mass email. Nobody likes spam, and this includes reporters. I have heard of using twitter to get to know a reporter. I think this a great idea, but neither editor I spoke to is currently using twitter. They suggested reading past articles to get a sense of a reporter’s interests.

5. You know what happens when you assume… Don’t be presumptuous in your message. As alternative weeklies, these editors get plenty of messages saying: “Since you’re young and edgy your readers will like this.” The reporters were put off by these emails because the PRos assume they know the readers. Leave those decisions up to the reporters because they know their readers better than you do.


6. That follow up call is not necessary If you have done everything correctly, chances are the reporter probably already received your message and has it safely saved in their inbox. If they are interested, they will let you know. Both editors found phone messages that give the same information as an email tedious and annoying. The only reason to call is if the reporter is a true luddite and hasn’t really caught on this whole email thing.

While not every reporter will have the same preferences, I think these are a great place to start. Please leave comments if you disagree or have had different experiences. I would love to get a discussion going in the comment section.

Twitter must improve

I have been hearing a great deal of discussion among my twitter friends. Almost everyone who uses the service regularly is tired of the outages.

A recent post by Mack Collier at The viral garden suggested that users would not be as frustrated if twitter had a public face or was transparent about the reasons behind these outages. It is true that transparency could probably help.

I have also heard talk of paying for twitter in exchange for better service. While I personally would consider paying for twitter, I am opposed to this idea. The problem is a fee, even one as low as $5 a month will discourage many from using twitter. In fact those with less than ten twitter friends would probably drop out all together.

At this point the service needs to grow and expand not lose users. But if twitter continues to have regular issues and crummy service those occasional users might drop out all together. I can understand someone with 700 followers continuing to use the service, but what about someone with 7 followers. Twitter needs to figure out a way to give better service without charging users or it will never survive and flourish.

Photo by: Southernpixel

Mistakes were made

I have often heard the phrase mistakes were made used as an example of the passive voice. The sentence lacks a clear subject, and it leaves the reader to ask: Who made these mistakes?

Unfortunately, I have also heard these three words used as a way to define what public professionals do. Supposedly we find eloquent ways help people who do wrong avoid responsibility. I would argue that this stereotype is unrelated from the careers of the majority of public relations professionals. However, often situations in the field of crisis communications arise where PRos must debate about whether or not to apologize.

A recent post by Crisisblogger explains the moral (and economic) value of saying you’re sorry. Crisisblogger recommends apologizing because, “It’s the best thing for your organization’s reputation and trust level.” I understand when a company chooses not to apologize because of legal concerns, but there are other instances where a direct and honest apology accompanied by meaningful action will actually avoid a legal struggle.

I learned the value of an honest apology when I was financing my schooling by working at the front desk of hotel. Often guests would come to me with angry complaints, requesting refunds. I did not have the authority to give guests a refund, and the best I could do was to recommend they call the manager first thing Monday morning.

I quickly learned that rather than a refund the majority of people simply wanted to feel validated for their feelings of discontent. Genuinely listening to a complaint and doing everything in my power to appease the customer went a long way. This commitment to hearing the customers resulted in our hotel having the highest online customer ratings. Apologies, accompanied by action can be remarkably powerful.

Photo By: Qatari Mother

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