Study says blogging not as popular. Oh well.

First, we were told that if we don’t blog, the world will pass us by. So I learned to blog. Now, I’ve read an article that says that people between 12 and 29 years old don’t like long-form blogging because (a) they don’t like to read and (b) they prefer Facebook and Twitter.

Communications gets more and more interesting, but I kinda wonder what it says about our future leaders that they don’t like to read. Oh well: My parents figured I’d ruin the world because I listened to rock-and-roll, didn’t cut my hair and didn’t focus on my studies.

As a public relations counselor and a communicator, it presents a challenge, but nothing insurmountable and nothing to get alarmed about. It’s just another day on this rapid express we live in. Newspapers, we’re told,  are losing their purpose. Now blogging is losing its purpose. Twitter has purpose, but mostly because experts keep telling us it does. And Facebook is the king (queen?) of communicating. This week. 

Seems to me that all this comes back to the basics of communications: What do you want to say, who do you want to say it to and what’s the best way to say it?  If I primarily wanted to talk with very young people, I’d use all of the media that they might read, and focus on Facebook and, maybe, YouTube. I don’t. I want to talk to people who are a little older and want to buy a home and I want to talk with reporters and opinion leaders. Seems to me Facebook and Twitter have a role in that, but so does a blog. And, by the way, so does the local daily newspaper those people read and, antiquated though it  may seem, so do magazines and maybe even post cards.

There are so many ways to communicate these days, that it feels like every communications effort requires a multiple choice pick list.  Chatting now requires a drop-down menu. If I want to talk about the movie I saw Tuesday night (I did that on Twitter and got lots of responses), I can choose one group of media that friends (real friends) will see. If want to talk about some  aspect of business, like how impressed I was with the homes at Four Seasons at Harbor Bay, same pick-list, different choices.

The challenge is knowing your audience well enough to know what to pick and then how to communicate through those media. That hasn’t changed and it never will.

So just how does the old dog learn new tricks?

Sandra Fathi, president and founder of Affect Strategies, wrote recentingly in Bulldog Reporter that the media landscape is evolving faster than some PR professionals and that some of us old folks should catch up. The whole story is here. This is one old dog that’s been trying to learn new tricks, but I keep coming to the same question: How?

First, understand that I’m a one-person department serving a lot of masters who all agree that they are the most important thing on my plate. No, that’s not poor writing: Each individiual internal client things he or she is the most important thing on my plate which means spending my days dealing with the squeakiest wheel. Strategy? Hah. I don’t even get to tactics! And more and more corporate practitioners are in the same boat. In my case, I also have no internal or external help.

So hours and hours to play on the Web are out.

I’ve been known to ask my friends, but the ones who are in corporate PR are in the same boat I am. The agency folks I know think a statement like, “I wish my tweets were retreated more often” is a prelude to a new business pitch.

What’s equally scary is the number of businesses that have grown up to teach this old dog…at a price, of course. Ususally a stiff price. But not to worry: Each one promises me the best, most knowledgable people. They all say that when I leave, I’ll be able to instantly improve my organic standings and rule the roost with my newfound knowledge.

What’s an old dog to do?

I go to PRSA workshops, which usually are good. But you still get the idea it’s a business pitch. Everyone talks new media but nobody’s showing me how to  do it! I tweet. I have a Facebook page and a Linkedin page. And you’re obviously one of the 12 or so readers who know first-hand that I blog. And I even optimize my news releases!

So I’m watching and experimenting. I look for the corporate stars of new media because they’re not out to sell me anything. And of course, I speak to  PR practitioners who come with great recommendatons…like Sandra. But the biggest frustration I have isn’t learning new tricks, it’s knowing which teachers are best and who to ask in hopes of an answer that will actually let me do something!

This thought might give you some paws: What do people compare you to?

Hamlet, always loyal and loving, is never far from us.

We spent Sunday afternoon at a cat show and I came away with two thoughts. 

The show was our first TICA cat show, and we kept running into breeds we hadn’t seen at CFA cat shows. My first thought was that we were pretty impressed with Bengals,   Cymric and Toyger, some of the breeds we hadn’t seen before and that you don’t see at CFA shows.  As beautiful as those cats were, Hamlet, our beautiful Norwegian Forest Cat, still takes best of breed, show and everything else in our book, even if he “non-show quality.” 

The second thing that impressed me — negatively — is how many breeders and alleged experts extolled the virtues of their cats and their breeds and summarized those traits by saying their cats were “just like a dog.”  

 I don’t think Hamlet would take kindly to being compared to a dog. And for those trying to impress me with their breeds, I say this: If I wanted a dog, I wouldn’t be at a cat show. 

 It makes me think about how we compare our brands. It also makes me wonder what people use to describe the brand that I represent.

I can’t control what others say, but I can certainly make sure that I don’t distract from my message with a distracting metaphor. It’s bad enough to say a product is the “Rolls Royce” or the “Cadillac” (for this post, should I spell it Cat-illac?) of its category. Used in writing, these expressions are trite, and I can imagine some customer thinking, “If I wanted a car, I’d go to the car dealer.” 

Granted, Rolls Royce and Cattie (I couldn’t resist) have earned their spot in our lexicon to mean best of breed. But I can’t help but feel that if we really want to extol the virtues of the products we are writing about and elicit the appropriate emotional response, we’ll take a little extra time, invest a little extra thought and choose to say what we mean without resorting to clichés or  muddy, disconcerting comparisons.

 While failing to do so certainly wouldn’t be a cat-astrophy, it’s in the cat-alog of things I hope to do better this year!

Legislative Affairs On My Own

For years, part of my job has been to deal with legislative and regulatory affairs. Always, there have been large lobbying or legal firms and lots of other people more knowledgeable and better connected than I am involved.

Some of you know that I’ve struck out on my own with an issue near and dear to me and I convinced the legislators from the 24th district to introduce bills that would bring emergency vehicles under the protection of the Lemon Law. No back up, except enthusiatic support from other emergency vehicle operators. And the power, smart lobbying firms were on the other side of the table. But…!

Great news today: The NJ Senate passed the bill. Now it goes back to the Assembly so they approve the changes to their version and then off the Gov. Corzine. Very exciting! Read more on my other blog: www.njemergencylemons.wordpress.com.

AntiSocial Media

Interesting conversation with my bosses today. They are perplexed because competitors are coming  up higher in organic search engine results than we are. And I’m supposed to be able to magically fix that.

We talked about optimization, the number of items we’re putting on the Web and other factors.  I, for one, am still trying to figure out the best way to get my news releases and other items to the best writers, be they reporters, bloggers or whatever, as well as picked up by search engines. It’s so frustrating.

I’m trying PitchEngine. Check this out: http://pitch.pe/40400  Let me know what you think. And, no, they didn’t pay me to say this. They didn’t even return my phone calls and there’s very little in the way of help on the site, although it’s pretty straightforward. So, we’ll see about this… Not an answer, but maybe a stepping stone.

Without violating state secrets, how are you dealing with the realities of SEO releases?

The biggest problem, of course, is budgets and resources. I have no agency working for me and can’t afford to keep using wire services to distribute. I’ve read lots of articles and attended lots of seminars, but this is reality. Anybody have any ideas? Let’s share them!

I’m back: Toyota demonstrates value of a good reputation

I’m back. My apologies for neglecting this valuable space for several weeks. A lot has been going on.

I’ve got a huge stack of things I’ve been tossing by the computer with the intent of writing about them. Most of these things, by now, have either been written to death about or are long forgotten. You’ll be pleased to know none of them was about Tiger Woods. I just didn’t care that much…

I did get to write a fun story about a bunch of technical high school kids who came out to see a K. Hovnanian community in New Jersey and to examine our High Performance Home. Take a look by clicking here.

Much of my time has been spent working hard on a piece of legislation that would protect operators of emergency vehicles in New Jersey from being saddled with a defective, unfixable vehicle. That happens more than you know. Take a minute, please, and click here to see my other blog, NJ Emergency Lemons. You actually can help by helping us to urge Sen Codey to post the bill, S2304, for a vote.

Speaking of vehicle problems, as a corporate public relations guy, it’s interesting to see Toyota struggling with a series of quality and reputation problems, some small, some significant.  By way of full disclosure, my wife drives a Toyota Prius and loves it (its her second one) and I drive a Toyota Highlander. I hate it, not so much because the vehicle is so bad, but because the two Toyota dealerships in the area have been very dishonest with us from the day we bought our truck at Towne Toyota and because the service areas have been awful.

Despite my feelings, Toyota has built a strong reputation for itself and now it’s paying off.  An example of how a good reputation works in your favor was evident on NPR’s The Takeaway Tuesday. It also illustrated why you want to make sure all of your employees are on message. Click here to hear the piece in its entirety.

First, they interviewed a Toyota salesperson, who tried to minimize the problems and then blamed the media. Wrong. It’s great to put one of your spokespeople on an interview and great that they’ll stand up to a reporter, but your facts must be right and verifiable.

Unfortunately, the spokesperson apparently didn’t know that. When the NPR news anchor interviewed an industry analyst immediately following the Toyota interview, his first comments were “I don’t know what planet he’s living on.”  Not what you want the reporters saying about your spokesperson.  And then, to back up his statement about the Toyota spokesperson’s lack of presence on this plant, the analyst enumerated every single problem plaguing Toyota recently.

Ouch. Not what they’d hoped to get out of that interview. Their spokesperson probably wasn’t the right guy and clearly didn’t have believable messages that told Toyota’s story well. It’s the old story: Spokespeople must be well prepped and have a goal for the interview.

Now, the good news is that Toyota’s hard work over the years to build a good reputation is paying off. First, you have the anchor talking about Toyota’s reputation for “high-quality, high-reliability” cars. Then, you have the analyst on the program agreeing with her! That’s payoff.

Even the analyst knew it.

“People are still coming into Toyota dealers and saying, ‘They’re standing behind us because they’re doing this recall.’” He observed that Toyota “built a reputation for quality and reliability and it’s carrying them through.”

Indeed, there’s no better insurance policy for getting through hard times than a well-earned reputation. And you can’t earn that kind of reputation except by “being good by doing good.” Toyota, at least in the eyes of its thousands of other customers except me, has been doing that.

The lessons from Toyota, then? Prep your spokespeople. If you have potential spokespeople scattered over a wide area, distribute a document with the information they need to have, including Q&A. Make sure every single one of your people knows the messages and is comfortable delivering it.

Second,  build your reputation long before you need it and build it by solid programs that enhance your reputation. And it’s got to be important, local and more than writing a check.

It’s PR-101, but it’s paying off for Toyota. That approach will pay off for any company.

Some business & PR truths from a homebuilder

When it comes to public relations, homebuilding isn’t the most progressive industry out there. Dominated by a lot of small builders and a bunch of really big ones,  the attitude of many builders still seems to be to wrap the flag around themselves, talk about the “American Dream” and ignore reputational issues.

One result of that attitude is that I tend to read building trade publications to learn about building and public relations trade magazines to learn about PR.  So I was surprised recently at a story in Big Builder,  one of the leading homebuilding magazines aimed at (you guessed it!) big builders.

I doubt he considered himself to be writing a public relations article, but Rich Ohmann, chief operating officer of St. Lawrence Homes in North Carolina, hit some basic lessons in his article “Notes from the Brink.”   A lot of what Ohmann talks about directly relates to  homebuilding. Discussing the merits of buying developed versus raw land and how long to hold on to a chunk of dirt isn’t something anyone but a builder will get excited about.

But hidden in that dirt are lessons for all of us about sustaining reputatons, even in bad times, and it’s nice to hear a COO discussing those things.

Ohmann’s Rule #5: “There are only 52 weeks in the year. Make every one of them count. Manage better and constantly. Innovate, create…” A lesson for all of us. It’s certainly advice that a strategically thinking public relations counselor can act on. We know  our clients, especially those of us in struggling industries like homebuilding, can use some new ways to position themselves, build their reputations and sell some product.  Rule 5 certainly seems to suggest that the door is open to good ideas. We’d better have some if we’re going to be an integral part of the team.

Rule #7: There’s no substitute for the unfiltered truth. Wow. That should be music to our ears. How often are we asked to “put a good spin” on something? Here’s a COO of a homebuilder that faced bankruptcy saying,  ”We approached the situation with open doors and full candor. We armed everyone who would be affected by our (Chapter 11) filing with facts and clearly stated our intentions to stay open and find a way to continue the company.”  I hope that somewhere behind Mr. Ohmann was a good public relations practitioner with a solid crisis plan.  Whether there was or not, Mr. Ohmann’s experience, as painful as it was, shows the value of common sense, transparency and candor.  I hope Mr. Ohmann’s PR advisors are helping St. Lawrence Homes build on the new relationships and new power that transparency gives a company, even in tough times. It’s a rough climb back from a Chapter 11, but with this attitude,  I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more from this company.

By the way, there’s some good advice here for all of us on how to conduct our business, whether we’re in house or an outside consultant. My favorite is Mr. Ohmann’s Rule #3: “If you’re a builder, build. Do what you do best, nothing else.”  I’m tired of ad agencies telling my internal clients that they can do public relations, of publicity agencies claiming they are doing something more than publicity, and I get concerned when I’m asked to do search-engine marketing. Social media is making the lines between disciplines a little less rigid, but at the end of the day ad people should do advertising, public relations people should do PR and all of us should acknowledge that social media is a tool we all should using, but the heavier-duty aspects of SEM should be handled by those with special expertise. Our clients don’t know better. We have to have the ethical behavior to stay in our lane while working together to pave a wide road toward our client’s success. And if we say we can do something, we’d better be able to do it.

Mr. Ohmann talks about his nine rules as “things we learned we already knew.”  His article may be about building, but there are some good reminders for everyone in every business.

More discussion on the APR

One of the reasons I love going to the PRSA International Conference is that I — a lone PR guy among a bunch of people who have a variety of wrong ideas about what I do to assure that they are putting their best foot forward — am surrounded by enthusiatic PR practitioners including some of the best minds in the business. And while I’m proud of my APR, not all of those “best minds” have their APR.

One of the things I don’t like about representing my colleagues at the Assembly, the governing body of PRSA, is the continued discussions that link the APR with governance…but that’s another post.

I often try to convince those without the APR that it’s worth pursuing. Many tell me it isn’t worth the time or that it doesn’t garner enough recognition outside of the industry.  It’s frustrating. I did my APR at a time when I decided I needed to commit 100 percent to public relations as a career or move on. Nobody in my office understands why my APR is important, but it’s important to me. I think I’m a better practitioner because of some things I learned and because it enhanced my understanding of and commitment to the profession. I don’t understand how something that stands for a commitment to continued professional development and a high ethical stance can be unworthy of someone’s time.

But I was never a great salesman.

Mary Barber, APR, apparently is a better sales person. Ari Adler, a public relations practitioner who attended the conference in San Diego (I’m sorry we didn’t get to meet, Ari!) talked with Mary about APR and was so impressed, he blogged about it. See his post and Mary’s explanation of the APR at http://bit.ly/2otXB.

Ari also talks about APRs having “an attitude.” Man, I hope I’m not one of those. I’ll be trying to do better when I talk about APR in the future!

Living in a pot of water warming to a boil

SAN DIEGO, Calif — I’m attending the PRSA International Conference (#prsa2009). We had the Assembly Saturday and today, several business meetings.

The high point, for me, was the presentation to the Sections Council about plans to start a Real Estate and Construction section, a place for folks practicing public relations for clients — internal or external — involved in homebuilding, real estate, commercial building or other related industries to discuss PR issues.  More about that when I get confirmation that we can forge ahead with it.

The opening program was Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, author and TV personality. and healthcare advocate Wendell Potter, APR. Some time ago, I wrote about Potter (http://tinyurl.com/yh5jvya), so it was interesting to hear him speak today. And what he said affirms what I said last September.

As I tweeted during the talk, Potter’s tale is truly a cautionary one, especially for those of us who are in-house PR counsel. We have to buy into our client to do our job. We have to believe in what our company does and what we are doing to support our client’s business strategy. We can’t do our job unless we do.

Potter talked about doing an ethical self-check to be sure that your moral compass is working right. He gave certain warning signs, like being worried about information getting out and asking if you would be willing tell your mother what you’re doing. He suggested that he didn’t see the warning signs.  It should make every practitioner step back and re-examine what they’re doing and how they’re doing to check for warning signs.

Ethical breaches are a proverbial slippery slope that starts imperceptably. Potter alluded to the old story about a frog in a pot of water that’s being heated to a boil. The frog doesn’t notice til it’s too late, unlike what would happen if you dropped the frog into the boiling water. Kinda makes you look for signs that the water’s heating up.

It starts with being asked to put a “spin” on a story. Then maybe it’s changing numbers…you know…just a little. Where does it stop? At what point does it become worth threatening to quit?

These are tough questions. I guess there are times when a little spin, or an adjustment of numbers is harmless…providing you realize you’re on that slope. The problem, of course, is when they ask you to do it again, you’re going to have a harder time saying, “No.”

Potter talked about being the conscience of an organization. It’s a line I’ve used before, and I know many others have as well. But you can’t “spin” or adjust facts one minute, and be the conscience of the organization the next. Potter’s experience urges each of us to be very aware of the ethical implications of every decision we make, especially we’re playing with shades of the truth…or doing something you want to tell you mother.

 

Why My Mother Was My Best PR Teacher

I’m dealing with two issues this morning:

First, I found an interesting post on a ZDNet blog that I wanted to reread, so I saved the link to bit.ly. Now I can’t find it. The bit.ly URL doesn’t work and a search of ZDNet doesn’t turn it  up. Very frustrating. Maybe I imagined it…

But the column, which was about what not to do to reporters on social media sites, got me thinking about the second thing on my mind: lessons from my best PR teacher –my mom.

I’m second-generation PRguy. My dad was among the original APRs, and he taught me a lot. But my mom laid the groundwork.  Here’s why:

Public relations is about ethical behavior and establishing relationships. You can’t learn either of those things in classes, seminars, webinars or by reading articles. You learn the basics when you’re young.

Each time I talk about ethics, I make the statement that my mother taught me everything I needed to know about ethics by the time I was 10. It’s usually good for a chuckle. OK, she didn’t have me reading the PRSA Code of Ethics and understanding that it was wrong to misrepresent who I was working for. But she did teach me that lying was wrong.  She also taught me that there aren’t shades of truth. And she taught me that there are some things you don’t tell your mother, something I tried hard to explain to my kids when they were in college and shared some of their “fun” experiences.

Same thing with building relationships.

The blog entry that I can’t find talks about things you shouldn’t do to a reporter on social media: don’t “friend” somebody (I hate seeing nouns used as verbs…and vice versa) on Facebook, then pitch them. Don’t jump on social media conversations and twist them into discussing your product or service.

Why do we have to say these things are bad on social media. They’re bad. Period.

All this discussion about social media etiquette leaves me with the same reaction as the discussion about  ethics: Your mother should have taught you better.

Why would you befriend someone — really or virtually — just to take advantage of that friendship with b.s.? Why would you pitch a reporter, regardless of the medium you use to do it, with a story that you know damned well has no news value (note to marketing people who bug your PR people to pitch self-serving puff — do I need to repeat that last?)? Do it a few times, and you won’t have any reporters — or friends — to talk to.

Calling someone a friend or colleague implies that you respect them. I was taught to treat friends and colleagues accordingly.

Social media is a way of talking with people. What’s marvelous about it is that you can get feedback, resulting in improved understand and a better feeling for what both sides of the conversation need. Think telephone on steroids.

If I have a reporter’s phone number, do I call that reporter and abuse the relationship? Not if I want that reporter to take my calls. Do I call any other business contact and abuse the relationship? Again…not if I want my calls taken.

Again…respect.

Social media also provides a way for people to reach you. For me, I not only have to answer my phone, which always rings as I get into rhythm on some writing assignment.  Now I have to monitor Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, email and my cell phone.  An important part of the social media equation is that you have to answer and reply. Ignoring a reporter or other business contact — especially one you profess to call a friend — will make your telephone or Facebook wall very quiet very quickly.

How many times have you ignored your office phone, only to hear your cell phone ring? If you ignore that, an email message pops up. And, yes, I’ve had a Facebook notice.  It’s a clue that someone really, really wants to talk to me. My mother taught me to take those calls and be polite.

But I keep those multimedia calls in mind, especially the ones that turned out to be unimportant, before I start banging on every communications channel available to reach someone. I was short on patience and had a reporters’ demand for immediate response long before instant communications made us all impatient. But I’ve learned over the years how counterproductive that impatience can be.

I could mention “respect” again here, but I won’t.

At the end of all the discussion about new media etiquette, it comes down to remembering what your mother told you: Be nice and treat others how you would like to be treated.