Inside PR 2.60: A blind man in a cave discovering fire for the first time

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This week we received lots of comments, and we just want to say thank you again for the wonderful comments. Keep them coming.

We want to especially thank Jody Koehler for sending out a tweet telling everyone to listen to Inside PR. We truly appreciate the support.

We also received a comment from Liza Butcher, a recent PR grad, who shares her thoughts on last week’s tips for interns show.

And we received a question from Kristina Dempsy who works for Sara Brady Public Relations in Florida. Christina wanted to know the background of the Inside PR podcast. So we take a walk down memory lane and share the story of Inside PR.

Joe, Gini and Martin then go on to talk about the new social network, Google+ Project.

Joe is excited about Google+. He has started to distance himself from Facebook, because he feels Facebook has become a platform he cannot trust. However, Joe worries that as we explore Google Plus we will all be blind men in a cave discovering fire for the first time.

With Google+ Circles, +Hangouts, +Huddles, +Mobile, +1, Gini, although she doesn’t say this often, is just overwhelmed.

Martin compares Google+ to Wave, complexity was the problem with Wave, and Wave eventually died out.

We will be following Google+ very closely to see if it catches on or not. If you have started using Google+ and have a comment, send it to us.

Gini had the opportunity to interview Steve Rubell and posted the interview on Spin Sucks and she shares some interesting parts of the interview with us.

Stay tuned to next week when we talk about some summer PR reading suggestions.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Post written by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.59: Interns and Restructuring

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One of our listeners, Yasin Akgun, asks,

As a final year marketing student about to embark on a summer internship I would be grateful if you could discuss what you guys think makes a good intern, examples of good students you’ve had and common mistakes that you’ve seen them make.

We thought this was a great question, and really well timed, as most of us are in the beginning of the summer intern season.

Because of that, we spend a few minutes talking about, from our perspectives, the qualities that make a great intern.

They include:

* Act as though you’re auditioning for a full-time job

* Take initiative and always go the extra mile

* Show that you have the ability to reach out and meet other people

* Show a  thirst for work

* Ask questions

* Learn how to negotiate

* Learn the gentle art of persuasion

* Really begin to understand where you best fit

* Have a “let me figure that out” attitude

* Be creative

* Find a project that you can see from beginning to end

And, while we’re talking about interns and their roles within the PR industry, we saw some interesting news about a global agency changing the titles of their staff and restructuring to fit the changing times.

GolinHarris is moving from generalists to specialists to adapt to the way consumer behavior is changing…and changing quickly.

The New York Times broke the story a day before the announcement and details what the agency is doing.

From the article:

The four specialties are strategists, who analyze a client’s business; creators, people like writers, designers and producers who generate ideas and tell brand stories; connectors, people who reach target audiences through traditional and social media as well as other channels; and catalysts, account leaders overseeing relationships with clients.

Martin Waxman makes a great point: It seems like they’re borrowing from Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point.”

But, in this case, their creators are his mavens, their catalysts are his salespeople, and their connectors are, well, his connectors.

This really is a sign of the times, but Joe Thornley wonders if GolinHarris simply is responding to the smaller, more nimble agencies that are already well down the road of adding specialists to their teams.

What do you think? What qualities make for a great intern? And what are your thoughts on the GolinHarris restructuring?

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Posted written by Gini Dietrich.

Inside PR 2.58: PR movies and wiping the slate clean

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Just before we recorded the show, I had lunch with Guy Skipworth, a friend, colleague and long-time listener.  He had an in-person comment for us: that we should talk about PR more…

Thanks Guy, good point.

So… in the spirit of the comment and the fact that summer movies are being released, we thought we’d look at a few films that depict PR.  And while most of them deal with stereotypes and preconceived notions, they shed light on why so many people have a negative perception about our profession.

Here’s the list:

  • Sweet Smell of Success – a brooding black and white drama about the darker side of PR with Tony Curtis as a sleazy press agent who will do anything to curry favour with a powerful columnist.
  • Days of Wine and Roses starring Jack Lemmon as a burnt out, former reporter and current alcoholic, whose job is less about messages and more about procuring women for corrupt businessmen. Billable hours anyone?
  • A more contemporary PR film is Wag the Dog, which features Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman.  The comedy revolves around a fabricated war that’s presented as a real event to take the heat off a president’s personal issue.
  • Other movies about PR include Thank You for Smoking and America’s Sweethearts.
  • Martin predicts the next big PR movie will be based on The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis.

What movies would you add? Please let us know.

In the second half of the podcast, we talk about Steve Rubel’s ‘scorched-earth’ approach to his blogs: he deleted all his content opting instead for a new online presence on Tumblr.

Gini starts by talking about the strong community she’s built at SpinSucks and why she wouldn’t want to leave it. She goes on to say that you can always recreate the content but not the community.

Joe advises everyone whose name is NOT Rubel – not to try this at home.  He feels Steve can do it because of his leadership position in PR and social media.

Martin asks about the notion of creation and the implications of deleting what is, in essence, a public record.

Joe says the nature of community is that we don’t own what we’ve created once it’s public-it belongs to the community. However, he also commends Steve Rubel and other thought-leaders who experiment and try the extraordinary.

Steve Rubel – do you have anything to add?  And, we’re interested to hear from all our listeners, too.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Posted written by Martin Waxman .

Inside PR 2.57: Google acquires PostRank. Are you happy? Sad?

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It was a busy week in social media: the roll-out of Google +1 and the Twitter Follow button. But even bigger news for people who have been measuring online engagement was the acquisition by Google of PostRank. Of course, we have views. And we share them with you.

We also close out our discussion of the big spring conference season with our perspective on Blog World Expo East and Mesh.

Enjoy.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.56: Key Learnings from Conference Season

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The spring conference season has ended so we’re all back in our offices, podcasting from our desks, and talking about what we’ve learned the past couple of months.

Before we get to that, though, a HUGE congratulations to Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. They just recorded their 600th episode. I did the math. If they recorded once a week, that would take 11 years to achieve. But they’ve cut that in half…six years; 600 episodes; twice weekly podcasts.

It’s no easy feat, either. They use Google Wave to begin brainstorming each session, adding commentary, links, and other information to enhance the story. They spend a lot of time bringing you relevant and valuable information. And that’s why it’s one of the most respected and highest listened to podcast in our industry.

If you’re not already subscribed, do it now by clicking here.

If you missed it, there was a really good comment from Keith Trivitt, associate director of public relations at PRSA, on the Burson-Marsteller/Facebook issue.

We talked for a couple of minutes about Keith’s response and the responsibility of all PR professionals, no matter their PRSA membership.

And on to the show!

A few things each of us learned throughout conference season:

  • The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Mike Michalowicz, talks about not calling yourself a PR firm, but to focus on what makes you special. That allows you to take yourself out of the rate discount discussion and get paid for your expertise.
  • Bret Werner talks about really understanding your niche, figure out which companies you really want to work with, and which clients you need to take to get you to those gold star companies in the next three to five years.
  • Jay Baer is a great speaker, who also knows how to speak in tweets, he said the goal is not to be good at social media, but to be good at business using social media.
  • Jay also said, if you suck, Twitter is not your problem.
  • Jen Prosek, author of Army of Entrepreneurs, has a great philosophy on training and onboarding new consultants.

One more thing: Barbara Nixon, we talk about the difference between Facebook groups and Facebook pages for you!

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.