Inside PR #39 – Tuesday, December 26, 2006

• • Agency Life, Government Relations, Inside PR, PR, Show Notes

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This week, Terry and David lament IPR #38, a low-energy snoozecast, and pledge to pick it up here in #39.  Terry and Dave talk about government relations as a sub-discipline of PR.  Chris Clarke is enjoying a holiday break this week in his hometown of Timmins, Ontario but will return with his regulary commentary in IPR #40 or #41.  Terry closes the show with this week’s segment of Inside PRoper English.

Show Notes

00:30  David opens the show and educates Terry on which countries observe “boxing Day.”  He invites listener feedback through email at [email protected], the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog.

02:08  Terry and David discuss how slow IPR #38 seemed.

03:25  Terry notes that there were no formal comments this week although David reports on a Sype chat he had with Bryan Person of the New Comm Road podcast.

04:08  Terry reports on the lunch David and he had with our northern-most listener Francis Wooby from Iqualiut, Nunavut.

07:30  Terry notes that he will be away for a week but hopes not to miss a show by pre-recording IPR #40.

09:12  Terry introduces the major topic of discussion this week, government relations and how it fits into public relations.

11:00  Terry takes issue with term “lobbying” and then talks about the “old school” and the “new school” of government relations.

13:38  David talks about how Fleishman Hillard is set up to handle government relations and government communications.  Terry agrees and notes how Thornley Fallis approaches this issue.

17:05  Terry and David talk about how separate and distinct GR and in some cases IR are within PR.

20:20  Terry and Dave discuss how important it is for organizations to build informed and constructive relationships with government when there are no burning issues on the agenda. 

23:57  Terry and Dave examine the need to build relationships with the unelected civil servants and not just with the Minister or other elected politicians.

27:22  Terry invites listener feedback on the GR discussion.

28:03  Terry presents Inside PRoper English for this week:  “unique”

29:58  Terry closes out the show and invites listener comments: through email at [email protected], on the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog. Also, they welcomes listeners to the Inside PR Blubrry site.

Music: our theme music is Streetwalker by CJacks, and is from the Podsafe Music Network; Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR #38 – Tuesday, December 19, 2006

• • Agency Life, Inside PR, PR, Show Notes

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This week on Inside PR, Terry and David host Inside PR’s 12 Days of Christmas. Also, they welcome an audio comment from Francis Wooby. They play Chris Clarke’s commentary for the week. Finally, Terry does his segment of Inside PRoper English.

Show Notes

00:27 Terry introduces the show. He invites listener feedback through email at [email protected], the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog.

01:45 Francis Wooby drops in with an audio comment for Lauren Oostveen and her question about freelance consulting.

05:15 Another comment comes in from Paula DeSantis from Lisbon about social media and PR. She asks what percentage of work Terry and David are doing in social media. While neither are billing a lot, awareness among clients of social media is growing. Terry says that he is approaching a large number of clients about social media. Paula also asks which clients are using social media, to which Terry replies that his firm’s innovative clients are using social media. Finally, she asks how much money has been invested in social media, to which Terry replies not a lot of money, but mostly time.

13:30 David and Terry go off on a tangent about how the time they have invested in social media has affected them as PR professionals.

18:28 Terry mentions that it’s unclear if he will be back for the next episode of Inside PR, as he will be on a cruise.

19:45 David starts this week’s main topic: Inside PR’s 12 Days of Christmas. On the first day of Christmas my client gave to me… a 50% budget increase.

21:00 On the second day of Christmas an international PR association gave to me… 2 international PR awards.

23:45 On the third day of Christmas a newspaper reporter gave to me… 3 front-page stories above the fold.

26:10 On the fourth day of Christmas a competitor gave to me… four conflict clients. Terry explains what a conflict client.

27:50 On the fifth day of Christmas a procurement officer gave to me… five blended rates.

29:00 On the sixth day of Christmas a blogger gave to me… six glowing blog posts.

32:00 On the seventh day of Christmas a podcaster gave to me… seven minutes of airtime.

33:10 On the eighth day of Christmas a direct report gave to me… eight burried ledes.

34:03 On the ninth day of Christmas my boss gave to me… nine dogs to pitch.

35:30 On the tenth day of Christmas an ad agency gave to me… 10% of the budget we actually needed to do that project.

37:15 On the eleventh day of Christmas a politician gave to me… eleven examples I can use for media training.

38:05 On the twelth day of Christmas a client prospect gave to me… twelve year-long accounts.

40:38 Terry introduces Chris Clarke’s commentary for the week.

42:35 Inside PRoper English for the week: affect vs. effect

45:10 David closes the show and invites listener comments: through email at [email protected], on the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog. Also, they welcomes listeners to the Inside PR Blubrry site.

Music: our theme music is Streetwalker by CJacks, and is from the Podsafe Music Network; Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR #37 – Tuesday, December 12, 2006

• • Agency Life, Inside PR, PR, Show Notes

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This week on Inside PR, Terry and David talk about the questions that clients should ask before choosing an agency. Also, they welcome a comment from Lauren Oostveen. They play Chris Clarke’s commentary for the week. Finally, Terry does his segment of Inside PRoper English.

Show Notes

00:27 David introduces the show. He invites listener feedback through email at [email protected], the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog.

01:45 David talks about the PR Network he started on Feedburner. Also, Terry talks about a service called Ripple that For Immediate Release has been using to monitor the number of FIR listeners.

05:09 Terry brings up this week’s only comment from Lauren Oostveen. Her question is about measurement and she sends along a link to Consultant Journal. He and David don’t have any experience in freelance consulting so instead offer up the question to any listeners with experience as freelancers.

10:50 David talks about being interviewed by a student at Yale University.

12:30 David kicks off this week’s topic. Terry and he are going to talk about the questions a client should ask before hiring a PR agency.

14:35 David thinks that an important question is who is on the account team, and who is the day-to-day contact at the agency? Terry says that agencies are sometimes guilty of the bait-and-switch move, where the president does the pitch but more junior people end up handling the account.

18:04 David asks the next question, where do I rank on budget? You want to find out how important your account is to the firm. At some agencies, a million-dollar budget means being the biggest account, whereas at other agencies it can be a lot lower on the food chain.

24:30 David and Terry talk about investing in current client relationships vs. investing in new business.

27:11 David asks another question: do you have a lot of turnover at your agency?

30:14 David poses two more questions for discussion: do you have billing ethics policies? or more broadly, do you have a code of professional conduct for the staff? Terry talks about retainers and out-of-pocket costs.

34:10 David introduces Chris Clarke’s commentary for the week.

35:26 Inside PRoper English for the week: infer and imply

37:50 David closes the show and invites listener comments: through email at [email protected], on the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog. Also, they welcomes listeners to the Inside PR Blubrry site.

Music: our theme music is Streetwalker by CJacks, and is from the Podsafe Music Network; Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR #36 – Tuesday, December 5, 2006

• • Agency Life, Comments, Inside PR, PR, Show Notes

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This week on Inside PR, Terry and David host the call-in show. They welcome audio comments from Gary Schlee, Andrew Findlater, Dan York, Francis Wooby, and Tyler Leisher. Terry also finds time to do his segment of Inside PRoper English.

Show Notes

00:27 Terry introduces the show. He invites listener feedback through email at [email protected], the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog.

01:24 David and Terry make reference to the fact that they will be welcoming a number of audio comments this week. Terry notes that he is exhausted because of a busy hockey schedule of late.

02:43 Terry talks about the Canadian Institute’s New Media for Communications conference, which took place November 28th and 29th. David and Terry talk about their sessions at the conference.

06:30 David introduces the first call/comment from Gary Schlee, the Co-ordinator of the Corporate Communications and Public Relations program at Centennial College in Toronto makes an important point about effectively managing internal communications during a crisis.

07:50 Terry says that he and David were remiss to have neglected discussing internal communications when talking about crisis communications on Inside PR #33.

09:10 David thinks that employees are far more savvy than employers give them credit for. David agrees that writing is the most important skill for PR practitioners.

12:10 The next call comes from Francis Wooby from Iqaluit, who makes a very good point in his comment about the important role listening in the PR professional’s arsenal of skills.

13:40 Terry agrees with Francis that listening skills are crucial to the makeup of a good PR practitioner. David echoes Terry’s view and emphasizes active listening, showing an interest, understanding, trying to clarify what they’re saying, etc. He adds that PR practitioners should be able to take the time to reflect upon a question and get back to people with sound advice, as opposed to reflex answers that can turn out to be unsound.

18:22 Dan York calls in with a number of items to discuss. Among them: Dan enjoys the show, likes the Canadian-isms on the show, recommends making the Inside PR logo more readily available, and has a recommendation for Inside PRoper English.

20:50 David and Terry share their thoughts on Dan’s comments.

24:40 Tyler Leisher, a college student, calls in asking for advice on PR education. David thinks that MBA’s are cool, but he can’t recommend doing one over getting a PR education. Terry thinks that it’s important that PR practitioners gain a better understanding of business, finance, marketing, and everything else involved in running a business. Terry and David have a lengthy discussion about the uses of business knowledge in public relations.

36:45 Andrew Findlater calls in with a short message on message training.

39:30 Terry thanks Andrew for his comment, and congratulates him and National PR on being named Marketing Magazine’s Agency of the Year. He adds that what Andrew meant to say was that two Visa member-bank employees were discussing interest rates, as it is the banks who set the rates, not Visa.

41:20 Terry talks about a clip he often uses in media training. David talks about his experience with spokesperson training.

48:53 Inside PRoper English for the week: that vs. who

49:50 David closes the show and invites listener comments: through email at [email protected], on the comment line at 206-600-4741, or comment on the Inside PR show blog. Also, they welcomes listeners to the Inside PR Blubrry site.

Music: our theme music is Streetwalker by CJacks, and is from the Podsafe Music Network; Roger Dey is our announcer.

Audio comment: Gary Schlee on IPR #33 and #34

• • PR

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Gary Schlee, the Co-ordinator of the Corporate Communications and Public Relations program at Centennial College in Toronto makes an important point about effectively managing internal communications during a crisis.  We should have mentioned this in our crisis communications discussion on IPR #33 and we’ll certainly talk about it on IPR #36 (which may well turn into our first ever “IPR Commentcast” in view of how many comments we’ve received).  Thanks Gary.

Audio comment: Dan York with kudos and suggestions

• • PR

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Good friend and regular contributor to For Immediate Release, podcaster Dan York drops in with a comment from Burlington, Vermont.  Dan and I had a great time in California, at the Podcast and Portable Media Expo, hanging out with Shel Holtz, Sallie Goetsch, Heidi Miller, Eric Schwartzman and other podcasting luminaries.  Thanks for the kind words Dan and the great suggestions.