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PR 2.0 Tactics

The blacklisting of PR agencies by respected media contacts like WIRED’s Chris Anderson and Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani has yet to “wake up” the industry. 

Oh, we wring our hands.  And those of us who bother to listen in the first place react with varying degrees of regret or rancor.  Yet the fact remains that this tug-of-war is almost 100 years old and at the end of the day, we all have a job to do. 

Could we get better at it?  Absolutely.  Will we stop trying to peddle stories on behalf of clients?  No way – nor should we.

I think Rick Calvert at BlogWorldExpo put it best:

“If you are a professional journalist, or editor covering a particular industry or topic then part of your job is fielding PR pitches for products in that industry.

“Think of it like a buyer working for a major department store. Let’s say they buy men’s clothing. That person’s job is to buy things from people they know, and people they don’t know. In fact a good buyer is actively searching for, and appreciatively receiving unsolicited (contact) from people they have never met who are trying to sell them some new line of clothing they have never heard of.  Why?  That new line of clothing just might be the Next Big Thing.

“It is that buyer’s job to diligently review that line and listen to that sales pitch to decide if buying that line would give his company a competitive advantage.  A buyer who only buys from his friends and buys lines he already knows about is lazy and should be fired for not doing his job.

“In Journalism and PR it is the same thing… Will you occasionally get pitched something that is irrelevant to you or that is personally uninteresting to you? Of course. Too bad… Now if the same PR firm keeps sending you irrelevant information it is entirely appropriate to contact them and politely ask them to knock it off…”

Okay, so take it as a given that newsmakers won’t stop making news – and that they’ll want to find efficient ways to get the word out.  Assume further that reporters and bloggers won’t stop writing.  And lastly, swallow your indignation and acknowledge that the 100–year-old PR industry can serve both newsmakers and content-creators by improving.  That leaves this:

“WHAT CAN WE DO to all get along better?”  This was the question I heard from a handful of budding PR pros finishing up their college coursework.  “It seems like PR can’t win for trying,” they told me.  “Are there some simple rules for Media Relations that will help us avoid these challenges?”

Answer: Yes. And, no.  Because everyone gets hit with the craphammer at some point, regardless of good intentions and training and oversight.   

Still, I think we can boil down the essentials, for all PR pros.

My attempt at a simplified PR Credo, in the form of “7 Promises,” is below (and tightly edited in PDF form, offered to you without copyright restrictions).  You can have it sit alongside the Blogger Relations Bookmark:

1. The PR pro promises to read several weeks’ worth of previous blog posts and/or articles to ascertain whether their story would be a good fit for the blog/publication.
2. If the PR pro ascertains that there is NOT a good fit, they will not pitch the blogger/reporter, and promise to push back on unreasonable client or management demands to do so.
3. Before pitching the blogger/reporter, the PR pro promises to double-check their method of outreach.  They will not only check externally-developed media resources like Cision but will also review any guidelines made publicly available by the blogger or publication.
4. The PR pro promises to never send a press release without being able to demonstrate its concrete relevance to the blogger/reporter … and will never, ever send an attachment unless it’s been requested.
5. As much as is possible, the PR pro will participate actively and transparently within the communities of-interest to their clients.  The PR pro acknowledges that a “cold call” (in any form) – while sometimes unavoidable – is considerably less effective than reaching out as a known community member.
6. The PR pro promises that any correspondence – whether the initial contact or follow-up – should contain a message customized to the blogger/reporter’s needs and should offer value.  For example, “just checking to see if you got the press release” is not welcome or appropriate.
7. The PR pro acknowledges that being ignored by the blogger/reporter is not to be considered license for harassment.  It’s more likely the pitch was not of-interest, so any further outreach should be mindful that the story idea has likely been quietly rejected.  If the PR pro must try again, they promise to do so by offering a different, more creative and valuable approach to their original pitch.

Following these 7 Promises of the PR Pro will not make the world a better place.  Following these 7 Promises will not eliminate mistakes and misunderstandings.

But it’s a start.

A friend in the Twittersphere – with weekend access to the ubiquitous Cision/MediaMap database of media contacts – confirms that Gina Trapani’s personal email address is provided for PR’s use. 

That doesn’t mean that PR is off the hook.  Mistakes and misunderstandings will continue to occur in the PR/Media relationship, and PR pros still have much work to do.  But I can’t help it, I feel a li’l better knowing we might be able to pass the buck on this one.

P.S. to the haters: yea, we sometimes rely on databases to store and track and retrieve contact info.  Barbaric, medieval, outrageous, I know.

UPDATE – the proof (click to view larger size on Flickr):

Picture deleted at Ms. Trapani’s request.  Wish it was as simple to ask her to delete that %$#*&%ing wiki.

Hi Gina –

I’d email you directly but apparently you’ve blocked my agency’s domain name (along with many esteemed peers).

I have written many times about crummy PR practices, and have acknowledged more than one mistake of our own, over the years. I empathize with your frustration and regret that we added to it.

Sorry if we spammed you. We not only extensively train our folks, but we published a Blogger Relations Bookmark (PDF) that is laminated on each employee’s desk. However, mistakes will happen, if only because we insist on only hiring humans.

But “being human” is no excuse for stupid mistakes; I am not trying to be cheeky. We always strive to improve. If you can dig up the offending email from a shiftcomm.com address, I will publish and critique it on my blog, and will include any of your personal comments as well. We’ll gladly fall on the sword if it’s in service to improving our agency and our profession as a whole.

You’d expect me to say this but for every 999 compliments we get from media and bloggers, it’s a shame that it’s the one crap pitch that gets publicly outed. But that’s a risk built-in to my profession. I suppose that a risk built-in to your own profession is that you have to weed through 999 crap pitches to unearth that one stellar nugget. We each have a job to do, and our own crap to shovel through, eh?

In our case, it’s “spam if we do and damned if we don’t.” In your case, it’s spam if you don’t want it (even if we truly think it may be relevant), but damned if you want a competitor to scoop you on an agency’s one great pitch.

I hope you’ll re-think your blanket condemnation of the thousands of employees who work at those firms listed in your wiki. Thanks to outcries like yours, the PR profession is becoming ever-more cognizant of the need for change, and it truly is changing.

Of course, every industry will have its ignoramuses so feel free to blacklist individuals but, again, please consider giving the many thoughtful, helpful PR pros at those blacklisted firms a second chance.

Thanks.

P.S. – If this note does not sway you, I hope Brian’s note will.

Been doing a fair amount of reading and pondering about the future of SHIFT, and of PR in general. 

We’ve come to think of our agency as a “tween.”  No longer a scrappy start-up, and increasingly finding ourselves punching above our weight-class in newbiz pitches.  It’s exciting to be pitching for FORTUNE 1000 business, even if it means the competition is far more fierce.  We wrestle with how to best present our credentials.

Meanwhile, the PR industry is catching-on to this whole Social Media thang: although too many agencies still view Social Media as a “checkbox” rather than a sea-change, my arguments to this effect sometimes fall on deaf ears, especially when talking to less savvy prospects. 

Lastly, a friend gave me a copy of the Arthur W. Page Society report on “The Authentic Enterprise.” There were no big surprises in the study, but, it did a good job of summarizing our industry’s challenges and opportunities.  For example, this quote jumped out at me:

“What happens when analysts and media – once necessary aggregators if a business wanted to reach mass audiences – lose their unique ability to reach those audiences or to legitimize the company’s message?”

This future is coming and will crush PR agencies unprepared to meet the advancing wave of change.

And yet, change is scary.  Even for a bleeding-edger like me.  Some of the preparation we must undergo lies far outside our comfort zone.  Here are 5 random thoughts on The Future of Public Relations…

Agencies must become comfortable with the personal branding of individual employees.  Agency employees will increasingly need to step out of the shadows, to serve as transparent client advocates in a community relations role.  Many clients will handle this on their own with internal resources, but even in those cases we can expect Agency personnel to supplement the effort – and in the process, become well-known to various online community segments.  This is a far cry from our historical role behind-the-scenes.  It also is scary from a talent retention standpoint.

Agencies must do a far better job of training staff.  The days of paying lip-service to Training are over.  With the sunlight shining on every pitch and community interaction, woe betide the agency who lets greenhorns loose behind the keyboard.

Agencies must explain to clients – with crystal clarity – that mistakes will happen.  No one likes to admit to fallibility, especially in a newbiz situation, but the reality is that mistakes will be outed.  More to the point, you can do everything right but, because the Agency now often deals with (unpredictable) edge users, even their best moves risk being unfairly skewered by the community.  The burden is on the Agency to plan in advance for such contingencies.  No one likes surprises and, everyone appreciates an Action Plan that can be turned to in a crisis.

Agencies must help clients move from Reactive to Proactive to Interactive.  This was another interesting note from the Page Society report.  For years it’s been enough to offer “Rapid Reaction.”  Nowadays, Agencies can differentiate by developing proactive community outreach models that minimize the impact of inevitable flare-ups.  But, what’s next?  Outside our comfort zone, but within our reach: collaborating with all stakeholders (executives and employees, customers, online and offline communities) on an on-going basis to help guide corporate strategy.  To help companies “conduct public relations as if the whole company depends on it.”

Agencies must reconsider their core value.  While I think that the PR industry can legitimitely evolve to include aspects of Community Relations (a.k.a. Social Media Relations) under its banner, there are other ways to think about value.  This is particularly pertinent for the hundreds of small to mid-size shops that can’t afford to compete on all fronts as they had when “Media Relations” was the universal specialty.  Maybe it’s time to specialize?  Is the Agency keenly tuned in to a specific vertical market (e.g., healthcare) or demographic (e.g., baby-boomers)?  Start staking your claims.

These are mostly high-level musings – and there are more to consider, of course.  What are your thoughts?  Will you help me prepare for the future?  With such high level concerns in place, my challenge will be to think about the strategies and tactics to address them for both our clients and agency.  You’ll hear about these adventures (and misadventures) here at PR-Squared, ‘natch.

I was talking to a really smart recruit a couple of weeks ago. 

Today was her first day, and we’re excited to have her, since she was already so well known to us via her Twitter presence.  In her honor I’m relaying something she said during the interview process that stuck with me:

“Everyone holds the predecessor in higher regard than the modern equivalent.  The book has more gravitas than the newspaper; the newspaper has more gravitas than the blog; the blog post has more gravitas than the tweet.”

Given how gosh-darned busy we all are, it’s no surprise that each cycle of evolution represents a condensed approach to content (though I shudder to think what will proceed from 140–character tweets). 

“Gravitas” comes not only from history, but from the thoughtfulness and effort required to create and consume the content.

Welcome aboard, Sandy.