PR people have feelings too. Well, some of them...

weeks. Responding to a post about PR blunders on popular web-technology blog ReadWriteWeb, a commenter fired off an angry response titled “10 Nightmarish behaviors PR people hate about journalists”.

This provoked a lot of discussion in our office and, before we go any further, I want to say why I feel I can offer a balanced response; I spent 13 years as a technology journalist before leaving my own kind to live amongst the PR people in 2005, so I know what life is like on both sides of the industry.

Comments like this are deeply unconstructive. Instead of this kind of sniping, it might be a bit more useful to help both professions understand the challenges and frustrations we all face.

It’s important to understand that, from the point of view of a journalist, a lot of PR communication is not particularly useful. I’m sure that none of you highly skilled professional communicators reading this will have ever desperately pitched a weak story to whichever journalists will pick up the phone, or tried to persuade journalists to attend a completely irrelevant event just to get the numbers up, but you’ll have to take my word for it that this kind of thing happens.

Imagine trying to do your job while dozens of people every day are clamouring for your attention by phone and email, but only about 10 percent of those people have anything relevant or useful to offer.

It’s not surprising that journalists get frustrated, or that they occasionally write articles to let off a little steam, since they often have the benefit of a platform on which to voice their displeasure. PR people generally don’t have a platform from which to voice their own frustrations and, in any case, since a key goal of PR is to build good relationships with journalists, few would be willing to publicly rant about them.

So in the spirit of constructive dialogue, here are some things I did when I was a journalist that I am now deeply, deeply sorry for because I’ve seen the consequences from the other side of the fence:

• Not showing up for events or cancelling at the very last minute with a half-baked excuse – I was guilty of doing this myself many times, but now that I realise that I probably dropped a lot of PR execs into hot water with their clients and/or bosses. When a journalist agrees to attend an event or briefing, a lot of effort goes into preparing for them. It’s much better to just say upfront that you’re not interested in coming so that the place can be offered to somebody who would find it useful.
• Saying “I’ll cover your story in the next issue….” even though I probably wouldn’t. What I didn’t realise was that while I was just telling the PR what they wanted to hear to get them off my back, I was causing them a real headache because they’d tell the client to expect some media coverage that, in reality, was never happening. Again, I realise now it would have been better for everybody concerned if I was honest up front and simply told them why I wasn’t going to cover the story.
• Being excessively rude/harsh to PR people who called at a bad time or otherwise inadvertently irked me. OK, I wasn’t particularly guilty of this, because I’m a laid back kinda guy, but some of my colleagues used to treat haranguing PR people as a sport. Not everybody in the PR industry has a thick skin, when you give them an unnecessarily hard time it can have a very real personal impact.

So what do PR people really think of journalists? We love working with them and, of course, we couldn’t do our jobs without them – we just wish sometimes they’d be a bit nicer to us…

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on the Text 100 UK blog.

As technology continues to evolve and proliferate in the workplace and businesses mobilise their operations, there are a number of challenges organisations may face in managing and supporting remote working. Indeed many of our clients this year focused on the knowledge leadership trend of Workplace of the Future and the issues organisations face in not only managing this business shift but exploiting it for the benefit of the employee, and its customers or clients.

With this in mind and because I myself spend a large amount of my time working remotely from Adelaide and commuting to Sydney every few weeks, I thought I’d list my 8 top tips based on my experience to help you negotiate some of the remote working challenges:

1. Have a dedicated workspace/office
There is no point in trying to work remotely from your lounge or dining room. The blur between personal and work time may sub-consciously become increasingly hard to distinguish if you do. Ensure you have a dedicated workspace or room that is used solely for the purpose of your occupation. That way when you start your working day you can close the door and instantly be transported to an office environment.

2. Utilise Instant Messaging and VoIP technology
Sometimes it’s easier to send someone an IM message than call them to get a response to a quick question. Applications such as Skype also allow you to set your status so that if you don’t want to be disturbed you can bluntly say so. You can even leave status updates such as ‘Out for a coffee run on mobile’ or ‘On a client conference call’ to let your contacts know if it’s appropriate to contact you and if they can expect a response. Additionally, video calling technology is only going to get better as ubiquitous infrastructure such as the NBN is rolled out and overall network quality is improved.

3. Social networking
Talk to your colleagues regularly on social media to ensure you’re engaged with them on a completely different level. Use Twitter to share non-sensitive important articles or pieces of information with your colleagues quickly.

4. Ensure you have a strong mobile network signal
There is nothing worse than dropping off an important client call at the wrong time.

5. Communicate often with your colleagues
Set up weekly calls even if you think it’s a little overkill – it will force you and your team to become even more organised than they probably were before. This is important as some things can’t be covered in an email or an instant message and it allows you to bond with your team over the phone. You can also hold video conference calls via Skype or via Google+ Hangout video calls where you need to see two or more people.

6. Manage timezones
If you’re working in a different timezone to your team see if you can adjust your daily start time and finish time to correlate with where your team is based to enhance collaboration.

7. Benefit from BusinessApps
Heard of YouSendIt of Dropbox? These applications allow you to share large files where email or a connection over a VPN simply won’t do and it makes sharing items such as video footage, photos, Prezis or large PowerPoints simple and secure.

8. Know when to switch off
The danger, and this is sometimes where I struggle, is justifying an extra hour or two at work at the end or the start of the day because you’d only be commuting anyway if you were in your head office. Ensure you’re disciplined to know when you should finish work and make sure you close the office door behind you.

Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on the Text 100 Sydney blog, Digital Comms Down Under.

A brand shouldn’t create a Facebook presence simply because it wants to be on Facebook.

Your social media and PR strategies alike should map to a broader goal, whether it’s increasing brand awareness for your company, products or service; building web traffic; or whatever other goals you may have. Also similar to PR, if social media engagement is not tackled with a plan, it can have an adverse affect. So how do you best ensure a positive outcome of your social media efforts?

Here are five tips for social media, which as you’ll see are very much the same rules for traditional PR.

• Know your audience – If you’re trying to reach semiconductor engineers or service providers, is Facebook really the best place to reach them? Maybe not. But on the other hand, if you’re Victoria’s Secret, a major Facebook campaign may make a lot of sense to reach your target consumer audience. Similar to pitching traditional media that your customers would read, you want to focus social media efforts on where your audience is spending time online. And know the type of content these people want to see – all before you actually engage.
• Know the platform – Don’t use up all 140 characters on Twitter with a URL because you forgot to use a URL shortener – avoid a social media #fail by ensuring you’re conversing and sharing information in the appropriate way for that platform. Similarly, when pitching Forbes, for example, you’ll research recent coverage topics and the section(s) in which your pitch would be appropriate.
• Develop relationships – People want to feel like they’re conversing with an individual, and see personality behind a company – this is no different with social media. A PR practitioner’s favorite spokesperson is one who hits on key messages, while adding in anecdotes and showing personality, and reporters want the strong personalities and uniqueness to come through as well. Developing and fostering relationships is a critical element of any form of communication, social or traditional. Social media etiquette will help you develop relationships – if someone RTs you, thank them. If someone asks you a question, respond. All this will help develop relationships with influencers.
• Transparency – Always be up front about your company affiliation. If commenting on a blog about a new Cisco router when you work for a competitor, its fine to comment about why your company’s router is better, but you must disclose who you work for. Remember when Facebook hired an agency to conduct an anti-Google campaign “on behalf of an unnamed client?” It received a ton of media backlash and criticism. It’s no different with social media than it is with PR – be ethical, honest and transparent.
• Consistency – When building your brand’s social media presence, you need to be consistent. For example, if you’re managing a company’s corporate blog, for example, you want to ensure there are posts every few days. Not only will this refresh the website with new content and keywords, which helps your SEO, but new content will keep your visitors coming back, and give them more to engage with.

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared as a guest post on the PR Breakfast Club Blog.

One topic which seems to have had a renaissance (judging largely by my Twitter timeline) is #newsjacking.  For the uninformed, this is the approach of jumping on the back of news stories as they happen, and building out an interesting and informed perspective that will be shared and picked up by journalists and influencers writing their story. So the theory goes.

This was something I initially dismissed as no more than good, old fashioned issues-based PR.  And a must for any proactive communications person who doesn’t want to simply wait for version 2.4.1 of their latest product to be unveiled or for that annual trade show to come round when you and 300 other companies fight for attention and inches.

But then I saw that the extremely smart @dmscott has written a book on this very subject, and thought I probably needed to reconsider.

While back in the days of BT (Before Twitter), issues hijacking let smaller, agile companies punch considerably above their weight and create a level of interest not normally afforded them, it also let larger more established companies be seen as being progressive and having a clear point of view on the BIG issues of the moment. And was a lot of fun.

Nowhere is this approach more widely embraced than in the security software business where sharp-eyed experts like @gcluley of #Sophos have effectively become the #1 destination for timely comment and interesting perspective on any emerging virus, threat or malware.

So, how has social media evolved a traditional PR technique?  The difference lies in both speed and reach.  Being quick off the blocks is paramount.  What a British sprinter once called being up on the “B of the bang”.  In such a hotly contested media market, taking time to read the papers, debate internally, develop a couple of drafts, share copy with legal, go for lunch, then pitch will literally leave you hours behind the competition.  However speed and IQ (interest quotient) need to be happy bedfellows.

The second point is around reach.  If done correctly, success isn’t limited to a couple of journalists willing to speak with your expert or take copy, and a resulting couple of nice articles, it can genuinely spread as quickly and powerfully as the example David Meerman-Scott refers to with Eloqua.

So, while newsjacking isn’t necessarily brand new, it does feel as though social media has given an old concept new life, and given it more power and potential.  And companies that do it effectively will still be the ones that adhere to some of those old core PR traits – relevance and having a distinct voice.

Some recent tweets question whether newsjacking is a legitimate tactic, which seems somewhat incredulous. If companies approach newsjacking either without having a credible voice or  with self-serving content, then they will either not reap any reward or not have their perspectives shared. Which defeats any possible ‘illegitimate’ purpose.

The final critical element is obviously timeliness. Judging by the sheer number of tweets in the  hours since David announced his book was published, this post may have missed the boat.  It opens the question of whether long form blogging stands a chance in the short-form 140 character world, but irrespective, there is a lot to be learned even for people who feel they have seen it before.

Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the Text 100 UK blog.

But I digress. What does this have to do with PR?

According to Mashable, Mr. Clean is "the only North American icon to become an ambassador for Movember." That's taking some liberties with the word "icon," but interesting nonetheless that he's such a trailblazer. Here's where his stache is as of Friday, according to his Mustache O' Meter on his Facebook page. This got me thinking....what would other iconic commercial characters look like with facial hair. Let's find out, shall we?....

If you think about it, the good folks at ol’ Mr. Clean are really screwing with a sacred cow.  Whoever walked into the CEO’s office with this stache idea definitely had some cojones. I imagine it went something like this: ”Say boss, you know that iconic image we’ve been carefully cultivating over the last 70 years? Well, wouldn’t it just be a hoot if we suddenly drew a funny mustache on him? Great idea, right?” There are two likely outcomes here: Either a nice big pat on the back and a spot bonus or a security escort out of the building.

But it turns out Mr. Clean is actually a pretty popular social media figure. He’s got over 170,000 followers on Facebook. What I like is how his voice comes off as just another regular guy. To wit: “A lot of people are wondering if Movember is cleaning related. Well, it means fewer hairs clogging up the sink, so there’s that.” 138 people ‘liked’ that one stupid status update. I had no idea people could be so passionate about fake cleaning solvent salesmen.

Hmm, the Jolly Green Giant looks kind of dashing with the pencil thin Mo, don't you think? I wish I had our graphics designer put a rose in his mouth as well. (BTW, thanks Ilena Ryan. Not everyone handed with an assignment to go draw mustaches on cartoon characters would have taken me as seriously.)

So why is Mr. Clean’s mustache mojo resonating? I think it’s because his voice is just inherently human. We as communications professionals tend to mutate into our stiff-as-nails, take-no-chances, please-the-man professional voices the minute we march through the office doors every morning. We effectively lock away our inner Mr. Clean for the day.

But your human voice is dying to come out and play in your day job. Why not humor it a little? Fear of repercussions? Perhaps. More likely fear of change. It’s always the way we’ve done things, and our jobs are deadly serious business.

So apparently there are three types of facial hair configurations that are in direct violation of official Movember guidelines. I decided to take Snap, Crackle and Pop and violate all three. I now know why they are violations. They look kinda creepy. Click for a closer view if you dare.

And that’s why 67.3% of the content companies churn out every day still kinda sucks. (Don’t quote me on that, I just kind of made that up.) The Cluetrain Manifesto came out over a dozen years ago, and yet company XYZ is still excited/thrilled/happy-as-pie to announce the release of widget 5.3.

We need to be more human with our content. Or at least as human as the audience we are trying to specifically reach.  Let your inner Mr. Clean freak flag fly, take some swings, be ok with the misses and don’t be afraid of yourself and your own thoughts.

OK, I know that mullets don't have anything to do with facial hair, but I was dying to know what Mullet Michelin Man would look like. And now the mystery is over. You're welcome.

And who knows, perhaps you’ll find just a bit more joy in your work. I just wrote a corporate blog post that defaced five corporate icons and included the words ‘screws,’ ‘cojones,’ ‘ass’ and ‘sucks’ in it, and it was kind of liberating. More importantly, I’d like to think I made a salient point at the same time. So experiment with a little Snap, Crackle and Pop in your content creation next time in whatever form it may take and see what happens.

As for me, I’m looking over my shoulder hoping security doesn’t show up, just in case.

Which brings us to Harry Belafonte. This little gem yesterday fell from the sky and into the PowerPoint decks of media trainers everywhere. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the clip in all its viral glory:

But if you think I’m here to further embarrass ol’ Harry for seemingly falling asleep on live TV, you’re sadly mistaken. Come on, he’s Harry Friggin’ Belafonte for crying out loud. He’s also an 80-something year old human rights activist, so cut the man some slack.

I think I'll give Harry the benefit of the doubt and buy in on his spin job.

What’s more, I’m totally buying in on his defense that he was just meditating and not off in dreamland. Seriously. As an occasional meditator myself, I applaud his discipline. If I’m stuck on the train or waiting in line at the RMV, it takes all my willpower to resist a Foursquare check-in and just use the free moment to clear my head. So kudos Harry for using your downtime time wisely. And well played, uber PR guy Ken Sunshine, on the spin.

So instead of more cheap laughs at Harry’s expense, how about we use this as a PR teaching moment. Here’s a run down of some classic tips that all media spokespeople are taught. Does Harry heed this sage advice? He actually did better than you think.

Tip #1: Try to relax

Easy one here. Dude is in the zone, doesn’t have a care in the world. We often tell our clients to imagine their audience in their underwear to put themselves at ease. Here Harry’s so deep in the zone that I imagine he’s probably picturing himself on a white unicorn riding through a field of lollipop flowers. Nerves of steel. Day-O, indeed.

Grade: Pass

Harry on one of his better TV appearances

Tip #2: Practice makes perfect

How many media appearances do you think Harry has done in his lifetime? I don’t think Factiva goes back far enough to track them all. If some poor flack had to draft a briefing page for every time Harry did an interview, it would have killed a small rain forest and poked a new hole in the ozone layer. Harry’s one smooth operator, you can’t deny that.

Grade: Pass

Tip # 3: Stay on message

Not sure on this one. Some believe he might be in cahoots with the International Napping Association to promote the health benefits of snoozing. Personally, I think this is a great PR opportunity for an avant-garde celebrity Zen blogger like Brad Warner to rail against a society that doesn’t understand the benefits of a good quiet sit session. If I somehow stumble upon Harry’s briefing page for this appearance and it looks something like this – ”Key message: zzzzzz” – then he’s got this category nailed cold. Otherwise, we can only wonder just how on message he really was.

Grade: Incomplete

Tip #4: Bridge to another topic when faced with a difficult question

Ok, so the anchorwoman’s opening question ”Hey good morning Harry,” really wasn’t a question, nor was it particularly adversarial.  Yet Harry froze her out anyway. The man had his reasons I guess. But if Harry was my client, I would remind him to gently redirect the question toward a key message.  Perhaps Harry was having a bad morning, what with his sadistic press people forcing him to plow through 59 interviews of inane local morning show banter in one satellite sitting. That would make anyone grumpy, no? A better way to bridge the comment might have been to say, “Well Leyla, it may be a good morning where you are, but where I am, I’m looking forward to this evening, when my new HBO documentary will debut tonight!” Missed opportunity there.

Grade: Fail

Tip #5: Control the interview

You'll get yours, Keyla Santiago of the KBAK morning news crew, or my name isn't Harry Belafante!

Well if this isn’t a power move by Harry to control an interview, I don’t know what is. It was obvious from the immature banter and giggling from the KBAK anchors (“Harry….wake up Harry?”) that they were just gonna sandbag him, right? So I’m going with the theory that somehow Harry knew and just took preventative action. [Seriously though, the production crew totally knew Harry was lights out before they flipped the switch and put him on the live feed, right? What jerks. Karma will get those guys.]

Grade: Pass

But wait a minute. Could the joke be on us?

I mean really. When was the last time Harry Belafonte was in the news this much in recent years. And now because of all this, I’m actually interested in watching his HBO documentary. Before it wasn’t even on my radar. New book, new TV show and a viral video that spread like wildfire around the globe?  Could it be that he’s not just another sleepy old man but really a PR super genius in disguise?

And I fell right into his trap. You’ve done it again, Harry Belafonte. You’ve done it again.

It turns out the question might not have been such a curve ball. I recently attended PRSA’s North East District Conference, and learned that the definition PRSA uses for public relations is 30 years old:

“Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.”

In her keynote address, PRSA Chair and CEO Rosanna Fiske (@Fiskey) explained that the reason the organization’s definition is so out of date is because the industry can’t come to an agreement on what it is we do every day when we come to work. Modernizing the definition, however, is something that PRSA is currently making a priority. I caught up with Rosanna after her keynote to ask her to recap her thoughts for you here:

I think the reason it’s so difficult to define public relations is because it’s an industry that encompasses so much, and means different things for different practitioners. We tell stories, we build brands, we manage communities, we build relationships, we drive business results – some of us do it all, some of us specialize in certain areas.

So when your mom, best friend, job interviewer asks you what exactly it is that you do every day, what do you say? I think I’ve refined my answer – I explain that I work with my clients to tell their story to the audiences they want to reach by working with journalists to secure coverage in articles, writing materials like news releases, sharing ideas and content for social media networks, supporting events, and so on. What do you say when asked the question? Let me know in the comments!

Aedhmar sat down with us to talk about some of her key takeaways from the conference. Check out the latest “Digital Discussions” below where she chats about the new rules of journalism, how PR, communications and marketing can support changing business models, and the latest in digital developments for the Society – its first geolocation smartphone app!

After viewing the video, share your thoughts: How do you think the CCO’s role is changing? How do you see PR and marketing supporting the evolution of our business? Do you agree that “change is the new normal”?

When the secret was revealed to the bloggers, reaction was opposite of what the ConAgra/Ketchum team was hoping for. In fact, many bloggers felt as though they had been slapped in the face and took to the web and voiced their disgust over being tricked to eat frozen meals filled with preservatives and loads of calories – which many attendees strive to avoid daily. ConAgra and Ketchum eventually ended up cancelling any remaining “dinners” and quickly started apologizing for the switcheroo and for leaving a bad taste in anyone’s mouth (pun intended).

So why did such an elaborate stunt, designed to generate positive and “surprising” coverage, backfire? Both Ketchum and ConAgra seemed to forget two critical points about food bloggers (and bloggers in general):

1. Bloggers are passionate about the topics they cover (especially Foodies). Why else would they be blogging about it? Most bloggers start writing because they feel strongly about a particular subject – especially when it comes to food. People who are passionate about food – a.k.a “Foodies” – have an intimate relationship with the things they eat. They want to know who prepared it, where it came from (local vs. imported) and really pay attention to ingredients in their meals. So it’s only expected that then trying to fool food bloggers, who pride themselves on being foodies, into enjoying a frozen meal simply, it’s just not going to fly.
2. Bloggers are just as influential as a journalist at a major publication and expect the truth. We live in a digital age where everyone is connected to the internet, Googling everything in sight and most likely following at least a handful of blogs about topics they are passionate about. Bloggers know their audience just like every other journalist and their audience expects the truth – sometimes even more so from a blogger than from mainstream media. As a PR professional, you cannot take a blogger for granted just because they don’t work at the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Bloggers are journalists and can potentially be more influential to your key demographic than other sources. Why else would we want bloggers at our events and covering our news?

As PR professionals we rely on relationships to do our jobs. From my perspective, the best way to build a relationship and gain trust is to be transparent – whether you’re working with a blogger, mainstream journalist or your neighborhood dog walker. ConAgra and Ketchum lost touch with this and probably burned some relationships along the way. What this situation really boils down to is this – no one wants to be fooled when they’re looking for a surprise. Especially when you’re hungry.

This morning I recorded content for an upcoming webcast called The Future of Earned Media: Radical Integration. My topic was:

“What do PR people understand that other marketers traditionally haven’t? ”

Grammar aside, I was happy to help out – and my response (in two minutes or less) follows…

PR has always been driven by two key virtues that differentiate it from other marketing disciplines such as advertising:

1. An understanding of narrative

2. A sense of campaign

In terms of narrative, we’re storytellers. Since 1906 when the first true press release went out, we’ve built a profession around creating and most critically encouraging people to listen to and share our stories.

This has largely been through the news media, using tactics such as press releases, interviews and so on.

In the digital age, this means we’re using techniques such as blogger relations, campaign management through Facebook and twitter, YouTube videos and so on to tell our clients stories.

This history has given PR people a good ability to drive discussion towards a singular aim – to use stories to support our clients’ business objectives.

The second thing that PR has is a sense of campaign.

We’re in it for the long haul.

PR isn’t driven by the 13 week advertising push – we tend not to create events with a big bang finish.

We think about six, 12 month campaigns with complex, overlapping objectives. These campaigns are built on an understanding of what helps our clients’ audiences make decisions.

Don’t get me wrong, events naturally help – but are subset of the whole. We understand what creates attention, interest, forms decisions, then once someone has decided to buy, how to get them into a brand community, then ultimately become a brand advocate.

Be sure to tune into this free virtual event, taking place tomorrow, August 23, at 2 p.m. ET here: http://www.futureofearnedmedia.com/.

Editor’s note: This blog post also appeared on Jeremy’s personal blog, Public Relationships.