Results tagged “public relations” from David Kamerer's Spoonful
Richard Edelman points out how the Federal government failed to tell - and sell - the story of why an infusion of cash was needed to stabilize our financial markets. Note that the post was written on Sept. 30, before the bailout passed Congress.
One sure sign the project is being railroaded: no attempt to construct, frame and sell the message. Just gimme the dough.
Of course, smart businesses build relationships and make money. I was reminded of this the other day, when I attempted to return something to The Bicycle X-Change, a store in Wichita, Kansas. I had purchased a cable for a vintage three-speed English bicycle that I'm restoring. It turned out my existing cable was OK, so I returned to the store to claim my $8.49. I had with me the cable in its unopened package and my receipt.
The kid behind the counter told me he could not give me a refund, only store credit. I protested, so he got another employee to tell the same story. He pointed out that the receipt says "no cash refunds."
I told him that I understood that the business made that choice, but that it was unacceptable to me, and that I could also make a choice. I walked out of the store.
So who cares? What's one little customer?
Maybe nothing. But I do own six bicycles, one of which always seems to need some sort of attention. I am a former president of a bicycling club. I have organized 100k bicycle touring events. In college I worked in a bicycle shop. I once built a recumbent bicycle from scratch. When my friends are thinking about buying a bicycle, they ask me what to buy, and I go along with them to the store. In a very local way, I am a bicycle opinion leader.
I gotta think that somewhere there's a bicycle shop that wants me to go home happy.
Here's another way to think about my failed attempt to get my $8.49 back. The shop wins. They get to keep my $8.49. And every month, they'll turn around and spend crazy money on marketing to try to get people to walk into the shop. Yellow pages. Newspaper ads. I've even seen television ads for this modest shop.
And they could've had me for free.
This is the lesson of the world-is-flat-social-media environment in which we live. In the old days, businesses sent a stream of messages to their customers, who listened. Today, many of the messages about a business come from its customers, who tweet their experiences. Blog about them. Write reviews on social media sites and message boards. Search engines organize this stream of information and make it easy to find for other customers. Research validates this concept: these messages are more credible than traditional ads. An entire industry has sprung up to manage these new online relationships. Social media marketers and public relations professionals help businesses understand this interactive environment and optimize their performance so the messages work for them, not against them.
I've started riding my bicycle to work, and am saving up for an Electra Amsterdam Royal 8. Know any good dealers near Wichita, Kansas?
The book I'm looking forward to reading will detail how the Barack Obama campaign was built in large part with expert use of social media. I attended an Obama event last winter, and have been impressed with the almost daily updates on how I can participate in his campaign for President.
Now the campaign has created an Obama-specific application for the iPhone. It allows you to participate from one easy portal. For example, it organizes your contacts by state, so you can first call your friends who live in so-called "battleground states."
Of course, iPhone users are likely to be social media-savvy and Democrat-friendly, so it's the right message for the right medium.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, there is a "Donate" button.
McCain's response: "iPhone? What's an iPhone?"
Sticky, sticky, sticky. Well done!
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, PR Week is holding a competition for "best PR blog." Vote for your favorites!Of course, blogging is no competition and voting is silly. But you should definitely check out the 32 finalists - there's some good stuff in there.
As they say in Chicago, "vote early, and vote often."
PR Squared, by Todd Defren, SHIFT Communications. Small agency that plays big, good balance between traditional PR training/technique and a solid understanding of how the Internet works.
Micro Persuasion, by Steve Rubel. He works for Edelman, a leading PR firm, and one that has positioned itself as social media-smart.
seth godin's BLOG, by, well, Seth Godin. (that's his capitalization, not mine). More marketing oriented than above, Seth is always swinging for the fences. Sometimes he connects, sometimes he whiffs. His writing has some of the qualities of Wired Magazine, always in search of the BIG IDEA (my capitalization). There's always a next BIG IDEA to push the old one out of view. But, having qualified his world view, he's fearless and imaginative, and you will learn something from him.
Find your own favorite social media/PR/marketing blog. Visit the Advertising Age Power 150 and toss some clicks. FYI, seth's BLOG is ranked #1, Micro Persuasion is #9, and PR Squared comes in at #40. This week, that is.
All these new channels - blogs, Twitter, YouTube, whatever - require some exploration to fully understand. And so begins the romancing. As we see the unique qualities of a particular tool or channel, we swoon, and become a hammer-pounder for it. Every problem gets solved with a blog, or the tool du jour.What's a hammer pounder? You know the old maxim, "Give a kid a hammer and everything looks like a nail."
This is why basic training in strategic communication is so important. It helps you focus on achieving long-term objectives. It keeps you from being seduced by tactics. So you don't become a hammer pounder.
Take a look at this article by Josh Bernoff, co-author of the excellent book Groundswell. He advocates the POST method:
- People: assess your customers' social activities
- Objectives: decide what you want to accomplish
- Strategy: plan for how relationships with customers will change
- Technology: decide which social technologies to use
Traditional communication training may use the term "audience." But "people" is better. An audience is an aggregate, faceless, unknowable. But people are knowable. Since we're engaging one person at time in unique communication transactions with social media, let's embrace "people."
So remember, if you ever get lost in a morass of technologies and don't know how to proceed with a communication problem, slow down. Take a breath. And remember, people first.
I've done some search marketing, so the concept of writing for computers instead of humans isn't alien to me. But I initially failed to fully realize how much public relations writing is also writing for computers.
Traditionally, the press release is written and distributed to - well, the press. But when the press release is distributed online, it goes straight to web sites, blogs, and - you guessed it - search engines. It's classic disintermediation. Suddenly, it's not as crucial that the New York Times picks up your story. You can get to your target audience through multiple channels. Don't get me wrong - major media play is important. But not like it used to be.
PR-Squared, the blog from Shift Communications, pioneered and popularized the social media press release, which includes lots of hooks for an interested reporter or blogger to follow. It's like an onion. Some readers just want to peel back one layer. Others may want to peel back several. By using the tools in the social media press release, the reader can get as much or as little information as he or she needs, in the formats that are most meaningful. And all the while, you control the frame.
Here are some bonus articles from PR-Squared to help you transition to PR Practitioner 2.0.
I'm interested in blogging and social media primarily as tools for my work, which is in public relations. These tools are
potentially great ways to develop targeted relationships to help achieve strategic goals. As a public relations professional, I
belong to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). This organization works to separate what I call "ethical PR" from
all the two-bit hustlers out there who will do anything to get their messages to their destinations. I am also accredited in public relations (APR), which distinguishes public relations practitioners much as the CPA distinguishes some accountants. It's a good start, but will only help when there's a critical mass of professionals to create a norm of good practice in the field.
PRSA has a code of ethics which all bloggers should at least consider. In fact, most of the sins of the blogging world would go away if bloggers would follow this code.
Here's what happens when people who are not trained in PR teach students to use social media tools. In short, this class project used deception and failed to disclose its relationship with its client, Coach, maker of designer purses and other leather goods. These people - the teachers AND the students - should have known better.
Most aspiring singer/songwriters would tell the world when they signed a major record label deal. But Marié Digby didn’t tell a soul.
She didn’t tell anyone that Hollywood Records, owned by Disney and home to stars Hilary Duff and Raven Simone, bought her computer and production equipment so she could post simple videos to YouTube.
She kept quiet that Disney paid for polished studio recordings, featured on her MySpace page. On that page, under “Record label,” she specified “none.”
Continue reading Liar, liar, career's on fire.
