PR Chicago

Tweeting as fast as I can

OK, I admit it. I am a former Twitter naysayer transformed into a Twaddict. I'm still trying to figure out how this social medium will evolve as more and more people discover it. What kind of tweeter are you?

• The Depressed: "Ate a bad clam" or "Feeling sad today." Sigh.   
• Tweeting for tweet's sake: "Got up." "Ate breakfast." "Went to lunch." "Saw a movie."  Scintillating. 
•  The Overachiever: "6 a.m. Just ran 14 miles, mixed up a protein shake and finished another chapter in my book." I might just join the ranks of the perennially depressed after reading these kinds of posts.    
• The Guru: Lots of folks are experts, gurus, mentors and coaches. I may be feeling inadequate.  
• The Educator. Love the tweeters with tidbits of information, articles, research, news items. 
• The Constant Retweeter. It's like cable reruns. Enough, already!  
• The Seeker. Finds the quirkiest and most interesting articles and links. One of my favorite tweeter types. 
•  The App and Product Tweeters. I'll check your stuff out if I have time, but does it always have to be about you? 
• The Autotweeters.  Save time, automate the process and bug your followers. It didn't take long for someone to figure out that you could tweet all at once and have an app spread your tweets around throughout the day.
• The Non-followers. I don't follow everyone (why would a surfer dude be interested in anything I have to say?), but I follow most people who follow me. When they don't follow me, I feel snubbed. That's just silly, I know.  

If you feel like it, follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/prchicago

How to be interesting, redux

Russell Davies wrote a fascinating blog post in 2006 called "How to be Interesting." In short, he tells us that, to be interesting, we have to be interested in people, experiences, objects, music, art and literature and we should share our knowledge with others. It seems to me that Twitter, the modern-day version helps us to become interesting by enabling many of us to share opinions, information and sometimes some very funny observations. The Twitterverse also features lots of folks who bill themselves as Personal Branding Experts. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but maybe if we take some of Davies' post to heart, we won't need a branding guru.

Another Twitter dustup

A recent, and highly blogged and tweeted scuffle between a journalist and marketing professional points up the visibility of those seemingly harmless comments on Twitter. They just might come back to haunt you.

In short, journalist calls marketing person for info for a story; marketing person doesn't get to it until the next day, and when she does call there's a nasty exchange because she didn't get back to him right away. She tweets about it, he tweets back, etc. Everyone's taking sides, and mostly against the journalist, who unleashed multiple f-bombs on Twitter. Check out the story and comments here. 

Back in the day, we used to tell our clients that if they wanted something to be "off the record," they shouldn't say it. And that was in pre-Twitter and Facebook days. Now, people are busy recording every moment, from the mundane to the ridiculous, tossing off snarky comments and perhaps thinking that 1) no one cares and/or 2) no one is REALLY paying attention. Well, tell that to the Ketchum VP who tweeted a derogatory remark about the city in which a big client is headquartered.  People ARE paying attention.

If they can't find you, they can't fire you....

Back in my Big Agency days, one of my colleagues claimed that his extended absences for "client meetings" helped him save his job, despite the usual agency churn. "If they can't find you, they can't fire you," he said. I guess that's not true any more in these Crackberry times. Now, a more appropriate statement might be, "If they can't find you, they can't hire you." Even with the pervasiveness of social media, many folks refuse to venture in. Check out a possible hire on Google, and he or she may as well be wearing a Cloak of Invisibility.

Some thoughts: LinkedIn is a great place to start building a network of friends, colleagues and business acquaintances. You won't be best buddies with all of the folks in your LinkedIn contacts list, but they sure can help you with introductions to possible employers, and recommendations on your work. It's fun and it's free. Other similar sites include Plaxo and Naymz.

Get on Facebook with a profile, a photo and start inviting your friends. Soon enough, you'll be friends with some people you might just vaguely remember, but it's all good. You don't have to accept all invitations. Just remember, everyone can see this, so don't include photos with groups of drunken friends at a club, perhaps. Better to be businesslike than put people off with a show of tattoos and questionable wardrobe choices.

There are also some very informative sites out there with tips for job seekers as well as articles on PR tactics, tools and campaigns. Check out www.ragan.com and sign up for free. If you're a PRSA member, there are lots of resources available to you, including free webinars at www.prsa.org. It's important to know what the traditional and social media issues are out there, when your potential employer asks.

When stunts go bad

Back in the olden days, when PR was more a matter of creating a splash than informing the public, stunts ruled. They're still a mainstay in the movie and music biz, but in this recessionary economy, the tremendous cost and risk of a PR stunt mostly prohibit their use. Tell that to Carnival, the cruise line that hoped the giant steel-reinforced pinata holding 8,000 pounds of candy would break a Guiness Book record when smashed by a wrecking ball. The large crowd of onlookers worried Philadelphia police, who halted the event. It probably achieved something of the result desired, but it just shows you that when doing a stunt, you have a have a plan B...and permits...and a big security detail....and insurance. Is it worth it? Only if you have deep pockets. Check out the video from Ad Age here.

Pure Michigan Campaign is Pure Magic

I'm not very sentimental. I don't save old ticket stubs or dried-up remnants of bouquets. But simple evocative writing gets me, every time. Kudos to the folks at McCann Erickson for developing a truly great Pure Michigan campaign. No, it's not the pretty images on the TV spots. It's the voice over by Tim Allen and lyrical copy that make you want to drive to Michigan RIGHT NOW and experience apple picking and antiquing and "the slow dance of turning leaves." In the Nature's Show radio spot, the copy reminds us that we could just stay home and see a movie or watch TV, but the beauty of fall's turning leaves are something we will remember for the rest of our lives.  Well said. Listen/watch the spots here.

Stop the presses?

These are hard times in the newspaper business. Besides the flurry of layoffs, we have newspaper bosses sacrificing content for snappy graphics, rearranging the ad-to-editorial ratio and even cutting the size of the paper. That's bad news for PR folks, who have seen business sections shrink to just a couple of pages, and home and travel sections reduced to mostly freelance and syndicated columns.

Now comes the disheartening news that papers are sharing content, as in the recently-announced agreement at the Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Palm Beach Post. Are we doomed to USA Today clones, with little, if any, local coverage and no in-depth stories? Perhaps blogger Jose Leal was right when he wrote a six-part series predicting the demise of newspapers.

Returning to find they still hate us (PR folks, that is)

Returning after a blogging hiatus--spring and summer filled with projects--and still I find the anti PR comments rolling in. It started a while ago with CBS legal analyst Andrew Cohen's now-famous comment about PR: "Show me a PR person who is accurate and truthful and I'll show you a person who is unemployed" (check out Shel Holtz's blog on this kerfuffle, as they say) and continued with lots of other folks -- including some PR people, even, piling on. Todd Defren chronicles it well in PR Squared.

And now I read that journalists and bloggers aren't getting their news from PR people...they are finding it in other blogs, from friends and acquaintances, by browsing on the web. Hate to break it to you, but most of those interesting tidbits began as PR placements. No kidding. Perhaps it was a word-of-mouth program or a mention in a seminar or a display at a trade show. Maybe it was a friend reading about something in the newspaper and telling someone else, who told a blogger. PR, PR, PR. Yes, and that is PR, too.   

But is it news?

What makes a successful media pitch? From time to time, many of us in the PR business must tell a well-meaning client that his or her story clearly isn't news or even feature worthy.  Unfortunately, it's like telling a mom that her baby is ugly: she doesn't believe you and she hates you for saying it.  Some tips for telling a good news angle from a bad one:

1. It's something the average reader would like to know. For consumer media, put on your "average reader" hat and consider whether the story is relevant for many people, or if it interests only a niche market.
2. It's timely. Your story might even be ahead of its time. Some six or seven years ago, I pitched a story on identity theft to some legal magazines and newsletters. "It's not a story," I was told. "We don't think it's a problem." In other cases, the ship has sailed far away. Last year's trends are last year's news.
3. You have supporting information. Does a reporter have enough data to make this a relevant article? Consumers who have used or are using your client's product or service, endorsements from non-commercial third-party sources, facts and figures on the market for your client's product or service -- all this is essential to a good story pitch.
4. Your client is available for an interview -- and media trained. Sometimes you lose a good placement because your client is reluctant or unavailable for an interview. Even worse, sometimes your client is ill-prepared for media questions. Make sure you develop some incisive sample questions and answers so your spokesperson can prepare adequately ahead of time. 

Good deeds and good Samaritans

There are those grinches out there who believe that a good deed, if done or encouraged by a corporation, is not a good deed at all. Shame on them. Only those who truly help the poor and give to charities anonymously can be said to be altruistically pure. The rest-- the celebs, the philanthropists, the corporations -- would like the world to know that they care. Is that so bad?

Witness the cynicism shown during the recent rash of "Pay it forward" coffee purchases during the holidays at Starbucks. Some bah humbug bloggers suspect that Starbucks employees started the whole chain --purchasing a free cup for coffee for someone in line at Starbucks so that person would purchase coffee for the next, and so on. Oh, the humanity!

A very clever and effective big-city promotion for Starbucks was its "Red Cup on Cars" campaign. A red magnetic coffee cup was affixed to the top of a car. Each good Samaritan pointing out the coffee cup (or even rushing to remove it and give it to the driver) received a $5 gift card as a reward, and Starbucks received some great mentions on major market TV stations.