Recently I’ve started writing for Investor Uprising, PR NEWSWIRE’s online community for focusing on all things investing and finance. “The Spin” (I didn’t choose the name) covers all things communications in relation to investments. I’ll be tackling everything from ethical investments to how those so-called “celebrities” can teach us a lesson or two about our brands.
In this post I do just that, more specifically addressing how Charlie Sheen can actually teach companies a thing or two about attracting investors. No really, he might be the biggest celebrity train-wreck of the past year but he actually did get a couple things right when marketing himself. Without letting the cat any further out of the bag here’s The Spin… “What Charlie Sheen Can Teach Corporate America“

I thought y’all might be interested in the following article/blog I wrote for PR NEWSWIRE’s “Investor Uprising” community.

Is it possible for Groupon to issue a deal-of-the-day for its own stock when its IPO comes around? 

Here’s my thought; what do you think?

It pays to read this section of the Wall Street Journal; you never know who you can meet!

As part of my new business strategy, I strive to make relationships with the VC and private equity communities.  While it makes a lot of business sense, we also have a lot in common and have always contended that (one day) a PR shop should go into business with a VC group to not just go after businesses that are worth investing in, but to seek out ways to merchandise the efforts of these investments.

So when I saw the following article in AD AGE this morning about Madison Avenue forming a relationship with VC partners, I got shivers down my spine.  There is hope that my vision could come true.

Investment banks look for return on assets that strengthen financial statements.  PR firms can help leverage assets–both tangible and intangible.  At SMPR, we strive to hit on any innovation buttons we can, for these are the very buttons that trigger asset development.

Anyone who knows me in the PR world has heard my explanation of PR and how it mirrors economics–clients have a supply of information, and it is our job to match the demand of the marketplace with what our clients are supplying.  Our currency is content.  In the VC and PR worlds, content is king.

If any PR folks are doing something like what this article is describing, I would be curious to learn about your feedback.

One of the great passions I have about this business is teaching junior people about the rigors of public relations, and (in turn) what people in my field have taught me.  I was talking with a friend who operates a great agency in Dallas; we were talking about what each of us has learned about running a business, as well as what we would have done differently if given the opportunity.

Speaking to the latter point, I would not have changed a single thing and have done anything differently. Running a business, you quickly learn how to take the good with the bad. If you cannot take lumps in this business, then you shouldn’t be in it. To be sure, I have built a much tougher and stronger skin than when I first embarked on my journey now almost eight years ago. I have seen people come and go; clients start with a bang but spend funds miserably and fail. I have seen the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. I have made incredible friends and have formed several meaningful relationships.

 
Still, I have learned a lot—more than any of my college studies could have prepared me for. Here are some thoughts.

 
Understand the power of “no.” It’s easy for business owners to take on things because the money is appealing or the allure of having a “name client” associated with you would add to your reputation. Saying ‘no’ is empowering, for it allows you to focus on what you truly want to do. “No” keeps your eyes on the prize of ultimate satisfaction.

 
The customer/client should not always be right. Logic tells me when presented with an array of options, I want to make as informed of a decision as possible; life is not one way or the highway. I also rely on my past experiences about what journalists want; I would expect both my peers and fellow colleagues would follow the same path.  As an agency, we are hired to bring an objective voice to our clients’ tables. Maybe it’s because I have more gray hairs than when I first started the business, but I take my role as a counselor more seriously than ever. I have learned to cement my position by proving it with smart research and positioning and not just do what a client thinks is the most ideal course of action. I would never go back to a client and tell him/her “I told you so…” but I would go back to what I know has worked for others–and could work for them if given the opportunity.

 
Hiring a business coach is a wise investment. It’s one thing to preach objectivity to your clients, but it is hard to obtain objectivity running an agency—especially when it is your agency. I have learned how to distinguish things between the SMPR brand and that of Michael Shmarak; I used to take things personally when something went wrong. But as many people have come to tell me, it’s just business. We need to remember that business should stay where it belongs. To that end…

 
…tell your spouse and kids that you love them as often as possible. I set up SMPR to represent beliefs I have that agencies need to be treated like families, that if a family member’s name is on the door, then the belief set should represent the person/people who you are honoring. I have tried to bring “family” into everything I do, inclusive of making sure that my team enjoys their lives outside of work. Understandably, my team means the world to me, and I try to communicate the value they bring as often as possible. But I would be nothing without my wife and three kids. Hugs from children are the best elixir for soothing a bad day at the office. Clients come and go; my wife and kids are always with me. It is up to me to make sure they know that.

 
Client love is the ultimate measurement tool. If a client merely likes its PR counsel, then the agency is not doing enough to foster the relationship. I know about my clients’ kids, their families, what they do outside of the office, et.al., to show that we (as people) are deeper than what a letter of agreement tells us we should be. Striving for client love does as much for what makes good clients awesome clients as any deliverable you can provide.

 
Know the right time to reinvent your business. When I started SMPR in 2003, social media was just beginning to hit the mainstream. There were several agencies that got on the bandwagon early, going as so far as to say they do it—and do it well.  Me?  I would rather wait and let other people make mistakes so I can learn from them.  In turn, I can then take this education and shape it in a way that best fits who I am as a professional, as well as what my team knows it does well. Claiming to be all things to all people deteriorates one’s focus. We should all strive to own something and be really good at it first. Do we do social media work? Of course, but we specialize in helping companies build their infrastructure so they are ready for what social media has to offer.

Above all else, I have been blessed to learn that my team’s work has impacted lives. We take it for granted that PR can help influence other people’s decision making processes. When you’re leading the charge for those decisions, there is an immense source of pride and accomplishment. There are so many examples of how we have enacted change I could go on all day.

Moving forward, I want to learn how to learn better.  I want to get smarter about more tricks of the trade.  I want to build deeper relationships and find work that drives satisfaction for all of us.

It starts today.

Post by Deirdre Breakenridge. Deirdre is President and Executive Director of Communications at Mango! Creative Juice. A veteran in the PR industry, Deirdre leads a creative team of PR and marketing executives strategizing to gain brand awareness for their clients through creative and strategic PR campaigns. She has spoken public on PR and social media communications among other topics and has written several books on new media and PR 2.0.

The hybrid professional is not a new concept. I started to blend marketing disciplines in the late 1990s, when my first PR agency was acquired by a marketing, advertising and web/multimedia company. It was critical back then to make sure that our work, on behalf of our clients’ brands, was consistent in messaging and tone, as well as look and feel. In order to keep this consistency, PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web had to work together.  The same goes today, even more so, as social media has many departments within an organization interfacing with the public.

For me, the hybrid professional is defined in two ways.  First, the hybrid communications approach is rooted or educated in traditional communications. At the same time, it also incorporates digital and social media into the marketing mix. For example, it is still our jobs to connect with journalists no matter where they report their stories; in print, broadcast, online or on their blogs.  We’re not abandoning our media relations work with magazines, online publications, trade journals, and broadcast media, and we may still be using newsletters and HTML e-blasts to reach our constituents.

However, we’re also exploring different channels and building communities in new territories to connect with the media who have turned into bloggers, to create relationships with new influencers/citizen journalists, and to engage with customers directly. Whether it’s Facebook or Foursquare, we need to know the rules of engagement with our stakeholders in these Web communities.  The hybrid is a professional who knows how to make different connections through various channels (old and new) on behalf of the brand.  The hybrid also realizes that consumers are in the driver’s seat taking control of media, carefully selecting their media sources, creating media themselves and requiring meaningful information and engagement from their brands.

Part two of the definition includes the hybrid professional as the strategic communicator with a seat at the strategy table.  This communications professional works closely with other marketing disciplines including the digital creative group, the brand team and marketing/advertising.  I remember attending a conference about a year ago when a very smart educator questioned me about why I thought PR should be integrated with other marketing disciplines.  She told me that PR is in a class by itself.  Yes, it is and PR professionals will always stand out as strategic communicators and reputation managers.

We are the professionals who know how to build relationships with various publics, who educate and change public opinion and who know how to move markets.  PR is not simply tactical and should not be placed in a silo, or only called to the table for media relations or crisis management.  PR must interact and provide guidance for all types of communication, across a number of channels. Being a hybrid and having a strong understanding of the other areas of marketing and web, strengthens our roles; it doesn’t dilute what we do.

Social media communication is human and transparent and when it’s in the hands of the new C-Suite (the Consumer Suite) a company’s reputation could be at stake.  We need to be tapped into the social realm and how the information we retrieve, as a result of social media, will need to be shared with different departments, from marketing and PR all the way to customer service, sales, product development, IT, Human Resources, etc.  We’ve always tried to connect to with other groups, and the strategies and tactics that we’ve used in the past have helped to link us to other areas. But, social media communication and our ability to listen more closely offers us the opportunity to be even more tied to the brand’s business and functions across the organization. We’re able to reach higher-level goals and to do our jobs with more accountability.

There’s a natural progression of the PR professional turned hybrid, which takes the PR person’s professional development from traditional strategic communicator to the hybrid professional who has a secured seat at the boardroom table.  The diagram below not only illustrates the communicator who applies a blend of traditional and social media, but who also works more closely with other members of marketing and Web as well as other areas of the company (including sales, HR, IT, Legal, Customer Service, etc).  As a result, the Hybrid is the strategic communicator who guides all communication and has the ear of the CEO.

The Making of the Hybrid

Source

The hybrid professional will blend PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web, and knows that these groups must work together, so that brands can better communicate and interact with consumers. However, for as much as we discuss the hybrid approach and how PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web must work together, it’s the change in the way news and information is consumed that drives the hybrid professional movement.  I’ve said that social media pushes the integration of PR, Marketing, Advertising and Web, but if you step back, it’s really our consumers who are in the driver’s seat; it’s their shift in behavior that turns the concept of hybrid professional into our new reality.

Guest post by Professor Kirk Hazlett from Curry College.

I’ve been asked to put some thoughts together on what I see, as a former public relations professional now turned public relations professor, lurking around the corner for the public relations profession itself through the now-emerging “next generation” of practitioners.

I would love to say I know exactly what lies ahead. But I don’t…no one really knows. But I can make some reasonably educated predictions based on my experiences teaching undergraduate communication courses at Curry College as well as graduate communication courses at Regis College.

Probably nothing I am going to say is going to stop you in your tracks with a “Holy Cow, I didn’t know that!” reaction. But maybe I can confirm some of your own beliefs or validate some of your greatest fears.

On the one hand, I see a wonderfully creative, quick-thinking, fast-moving profession. One of my favorite personal sayings is, “They don’t think outside the box…They don’t even know there’s a box there!”

I find, in working with my more engaged students, that they are always thinking ahead trying to answer the unasked questions and find solutions to the unidentified problems. I love it when someone either comes bouncing into my office to test an idea on me or Facebooks me with a question about the project he or she is working on.

I usually wind up getting all excited myself and getting way too wrapped up in the challenge du jour. But it’s what keeps me on my toes, and it reassures me that there is, indeed, a future for public relations.

Another positive that I see is an inherent grasp of the many levels of social media as a communication tool…something those of us more “senior” practitioners are having to learn from the ground up.

Not only are these future communicators fluent in social media use; they instinctively know, having used it from Day 1, how to communicate with their peers…emerging target markets…in their language. (Note: This fluency leads in some cases to a problem discussed below.)

One problem I see lying ahead, though, is a long, slogging march as we try to instill in this up-and-coming generation the need for patience, attention to detail, and basic traditional communication skills.

I don’t put the entire blame on these folks, though…I put it squarely where it belongs…on the shoulders of the school systems that are putting quantity ahead of quality in education.

When I get students who have never learned how to format and write a simple business (or any kind of) letter, I have to ask myself, “How are these kids going to function as communicators in the real world?…Who dropped the ball?

All too often, I get class assignments that are very nearly unreadable. Correct grammar? Ain’t gonna happen. Punctuation? Whats that. Spelling? There never going to get their with they’re current knowledge.

In addition, they know how to say words, but they don’t know how to communicate…a result of the “new and improved” methods of communication that enable people to exchange messages, unfortunately, not in the “two-way symmetric” mode that I teach to my public relations students at Curry.

What I preach is the need to listen and to formulate messages based on visual and verbal responses from a target audience. In today’s smartphone world, this is rapidly becoming a lost art.

So what does this mean for those of us who will be training these young diamonds in the rough?

For starters, we’re going to have to tap into a previously unneeded reservoir of patience. We’re going to have to remember that communication for them has been about text-messaging, not cursive writing.

And we’re going to have to learn to reward the “baby steps” that our young charges will be taking as they slip tentatively into the “deep end” of the public relations pool. I was fortunate as I was starting out oh-so-many-years-ago to have had supervisors or mentors who took the time to show me the correct way to write, to formulate thoughts, to express myself both in writing and in the spoken word.

That part hasn’t changed and won’t change regardless of which generation we’re talking about. Things will never be the “way they were,” so let’s get used to it and move on.

As the Gryphon said in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “That’s the reason they’re called lessons…because they lessen from day to day.”

Kirk Hazlett, APR, Fellow PRSA, is a veteran public relations professional with more than 35 years’ federal government and nonprofit organization PR experience followed by nearly 10 years’ undergraduate- and graduate-level college teaching experience. His public relations experience includes healthcare and member services organizations ranging from Blood Bank of Hawaii to Medical Area Service Corporation to Boston Harborfest, and he has provided consulting services for both the Manila and the Singapore Red Cross. He currently is Associate Professor of Communication at Curry College where he oversees the Public Relations concentration and serves as Faculty Adviser for the Curry College Public Relations Student Association, and Lecturer in Communications at Regis College where he teaches graduate communication courses.

Will Google's Instant Search be not so instant after all?

Whitney is on a roll these days, so we don’t want to hold her back…

When Google introduced the new Instant Search feature at the end of September, marketers were intrigued to hear that there was a list of words that instant search couldn’t utilize. That was just the beginning.

In a press conference, Google’s reps explained that Google didn’t have a master list of words and phrases that were blacklisted for instant search. Instead, it uses algorithms to distinguish between phrases that are more “family friendly” than others.  What is really interesting is the list of words that have been compiled that aren’t filtered out through this algorithm.  2600 (“The Hacker Quarterly”) has created a page with a list of what phrases are blacklisted and what words and phrases slip through on to instant search (much to some people’s surprise).
It is completely understandable that Google would take action to make sure instant search doesn’t provide little kids with information their young eyes should not see. What is confusing is that it is letting certain words through and blocking other phrases that aren’t all that offensive.

Check out Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit;” that phrase is blocked.  Words that you wouldn’t traditionally utter in public (i.e., “swear words”) are not blocked.  WTF?

Now, this is a brand new feature; in time, the algorithms will hopefully adapt to keep out a wider range of inappropriate words.  What about titles of songs, and names of journalists, like Ms. Slutsky who was present at the press conference. She commented that her name was one of the words that was blocked from instant search.

In a time when people are getting more and more impatient, what will instant search do to those who want answers quickly?  Yes, you can still type in “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and get links to Nirvana and the song. Will there come a day when people are too lazy to enter one more keystroke to search the entire phrase?  Who is to say that Google should be editing what shows up on an instant search anyway?  If we are all educated people using the free and open Internet, we should all understand that you get what you search for.

What will this mean for PR when a practitioner searches using Google?  Let’s say they’re looking for the journalist Ms. Slutsky and prefer using instant search.  Her name wouldn’t appear and a possible connection and opportunity for the client is lost.  As PR practitioners, we will have to look at how popular instant search becomes and how to ensure that our name and our clients’ names don’t get “blacklisted.”

Imagine what that could do to your SEO if everyone became dependent on instant search and the words associated with your product were for some reason blacklisted.

This new invention by Google seems to be a tool whose worth we, as professionals in our field and as a society, will have to weigh as it continues to grow.

Could using a PDA be bad for your corporate health?

Über-intern Whitney checks in with a very smart analysis of how technology could impede the practice of corporate communications.  Take it away, Whitney…

Since the advent of smartphones people have had a new challenge placed in front of them.  It isn’t how often you can check in on Foursquare or how fast you can look up a fact to prove a point.  In fact, it’s a challenge of etiquette, of how we as a society are choosing to balance face-to-face interactions against online relationships.

Recently Gini Dietrich covered this on her blog, Spin Sucks. After reading her post we felt compelled to chime in as well.

If you look around a coffee shop, restaurant or on the train it’s safe to say you’ll see at least a dozen people with their phones out, waiting for them to light up with an alert that something is happening in their digital world.  When people are this focused on maintaining their networks online they are often neglecting the relationship and networking opportunities right next to them—in the “real world.”

In the not so distant past, it was viewed as rude to answer a phone call during a meeting; now, it’s practically expected.  It’s hard to make a blanket statement saying that everyone should ignore their phones while conducting business, at the workplace or when out with colleagues and friends.

Still, SMPR encourages clients to think about how one’s corporate reputation—not to mention one’s personal brand—can be hindered if your PDA runs your life and not the other way around.

Remember this—people with whom you network over the Web cannot see that you’re ignoring a client when Tweeting during a meeting, but that client sure can. What will they tweet, think or say about you after their face-to-face interaction with you where you were MIA?

One of the great things about PR is that when you find a company that “gets it,” it makes for an easy time to showcase that client.  In nearly all of those cases, these companies have superior people implementing processes that are DRIVEN by the people who designed them.

It sounds so easy, but people drive processes not only to make them work, but to make them smarter.  People drive innovation.  People look for ways to make systems more efficient and effective.  Perhaps all else, the smartest companies out there continuously look for ways to make both the people and the processes better.  This is the way that SMPR strives to showcase its clients, by looking at all of a company’s value drivers.

Which side is more important for good PR, process or people?

But when an outside company comes in and acquires another company–especially one built on people-based assets such as culture and talent–the equilibrium tends to shift.  Sadly, a former SMPR client (Flat Top Grill) has shifted for the worse.

Let’s be clear here–I am not sharing this information intending to spill “sour grapes” about a former client, let alone a former employer (disclosure–I worked for the company more than 10 years ago).  I am, however, sharing this because this company used to be the epicenter of customer experiences and people management, and it has reached an abyss that is so low that I worry that it will never get out.

I went into lunch at Flat Top Grill’s Loop location because I wanted to see how the company has changed since we stopped working with them.  To be sure, the people who we knew were no longer with the company (not that I expected to see them).  But the product has become so commoditized; what’s worse, the product was so poor, the service was so bad and the people–the very asset we looked to showcase–were so poorly trained and executed that it made me wonder how a company and its culture could sink so fast.

Want proof?

• I had to wait 22 MINUTES for my bowl to be delivered to me (WAY beyond the norm).
• Ingredients are supposed to be mixed together, but in my mouth was the very spoonful of wasabi I spooned in; my mouth was burning hot.
• I would have had water, but my glass wasn’t filled.  I had to run to a bathroom to get water (SERIOUSLY).
• Since when is soy put in beef and chicken?  Oh yeah, as a PRESERVATIVE.  If I wanted soy, I would have asked for tofu.
• As a former Partner (the company’s term for employee), I am entitled a professional courtesy when I dine there; I was asked three different times where I worked, who I was and why I asked for the discount; my bill must have been important to them…
• …but if it was so important, then why did it take all of these people so long to get my bill?  The server’s response–”We’re busy.”  Uh, hello?  Restaurants are SUPPOSED to be busy and you’re supposed to be PREPARED.

Unfortunately, the company has lost touch with the very thing that put the company in growth mode–its people.  Training and systems were tossed aside in favor of processes to save money.  I don’t need to look at their books to know that.  I asked a CEO of a major restaurant group in town what would have happened to his company if any of this had happened.  His response:  “I would be tracking down that customer to get their inputs how we can change things to make things right for him….”

Sadly, I doubt that will happen; Flat Top Grill has lost touch with what was important.  Perhaps one day, they can find what made them successful.

CBS won't allow ManCrunch to run with the ball.

I am really excited for the Super Bowl–the teams are getting ready to put their best face forward; millions of people will see stars in the making and see others thrown to the side by armchair quarterbacks wondering what they would have done differently.

And oh yeah, there will be a football game, too.

The marketing community’s annual tradition of Super Bowl advertising hype is in full force.  This year, there is controversy even before I can throw the hot dogs on the BBQ.  This morning, I saw a story about CBS pulled the plug on the following ad from ManCrunch, a gay dating Web site.  The PR people at CBS are already spewing statements noting that the site also has issues with its credit.

If anything, I would question the credit of CBS.

How does a network like CBS draw a line in the sand between Florida Gator Tim Tebow appearing with his Mom in an anti-abortion ad and the ad from ManCrunch?  Is one ad more or less acceptable than the other?

Analyzing the drivers of these decisions are crucial to the study of PR ethics:

• Tebow has a bright future ahead of him in the NFL (although many scouts think he is the next Gino Torretta).  He is a safe bet to be a poster child for something which can be good for the NFL, i.e., family values.
• I have never seen morals get in the way of Super Bowl ads until now.  Where were all of the pundits when GoDaddy ran its ads on the air?  Sure, sex sells, but does the thinking go that it only works for heterosexual men?
• Then there’s the almighty dollar discussions, especially if the prevailing thought is that sponsors would leave the game because there is an “offensive” ad.

If the “sex sells” argument is being utilized here, then what about the “no sex sells” idealism?  Rather than going in the direction that the Tebow family went, what about an alternative message promoting safe sex that prevents thinking about abortions?

ManCrunch is gaining a lot of publicity and ad views online because the CBS brass said no to the ad.  But in what I think will be an ongoing debate leading up to the Super Bowl’s kickoff, there is already a penalty of offensive interference–and there hasn’t even been a snap count yet.

What do you think?  Am I off-base here?