Inside PR 2.58: PR movies and wiping the slate clean

June 15, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

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 Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger 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?

June 8, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

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.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.55: The value of Counselors Academy

May 25, 2011 • admin • PR

[display_podcast]

Gini, Joe and Martin are back at PRSA’s Counselors Academy Conference in Lake Las Vegas for the second of our two shows.

For those who may not be familiar with the conference, Martin tells us the annual conference is all about the business of PR and invites PR agency leaders across the globe to join the conversation.

Joe says if you run an agency, there are many great reasons to attend and then turns the mic over to some of our colleagues in attendance for their perspectives.

Lisa Gerber says she got into PR with no clue about the business and Counselors helped her raise the bar on her own performance.

Johna Burke finds value because it helps people evolve beyond tactics like managing accounts. This shift is what’s going to propel the profession forward.

Tom Garrity enjoys peer to peer conversation and gaining business insights.

Jean Walcher came first to learn, but this year wants to be reinvigorated by the open and intelligent conversations.

Joe mentions that 3-am feeling when you’re thinking about your agency, you can’t sleep and wonder what you’re going to do next. You may be facing one of those difficult situations where it’s tough to talk to the team. Counselors can be a remarkable source of advice. Meet other smart people who freely share their learnings.

Martin says that when he started at Counselors, there were a lot more multinational agencies but now the organization is geared to independents and entrepreneurs. He references first learning about social media from Giovanni Rodriguez at Counselors at a session both he and Joe attended. But they didn’t get to know each other until a year or so later when both realized how much of a seminal moment that was.

Gini talks about the networking and how you can have open conversations with your competitors and discuss issues like profitability and margins and other things PR folks don’t learn in school.

At this point, Jean poses a question: Do you reward employees for bringing in new business?

Gini says she’s tried many types of incentives. She recently hired someone by incenting them to create their own job; the person is responsible for developing proposals, closing the business and she has goals based on profitability.

Joe attended a CA session led by Rob Adler on motivating employees and says the same question came up. One agency gives 5 per cent of a new client’s fee revenue to the staff person that brought it in – for as long as they have the client.

Martin says it can be difficult to figure out the right kind of incentive, because if new business is being generated by the agency leadership and you’re not paying it out, the incentive becomes like an empty promise.

That brings us to an end for this show. Counselors Academy’s next conference is May 6 to 8, 2012 in New Orleans. Disclosure: Martin is conference chair. You may want to check out the website for an overview of the other programs they offer throughout the year.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.54: Live from Counselors Academy – talking about a PR imbroglio

May 18, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

We’re on the road and face to face at Counselors Academy’s annual conference for PR leaders, where we’ll be doing the next two shows.

Joe leads off this week’s discussion with: the Burson-Marsteller / Facebook imbroglio.

Gini recaps her blog post and sets the scene. BM had been working with media and bloggers to create a whisper campaign against Google and its social media platform. The PR firm did not disclose the client. After much speculation, Facebook admitted they were behind the program. BM issued a statement saying the initiative contravened its policies but did not come out and apologize. PRSA was quoted in a story saying that since only 14 people in the agency are members, they’re the only ones who can be held responsible for the ethics breach.

The story reminds Martin of a classic ‘50s film, The Sweet Smell of Success, with Tony Curtis as a less than honest press agent who conducts a whisper campaign of his own.

Joe says this is a challenge any firm faces. The story affects all PR and communications employees as well as the image of PR as a whole. What he finds most disturbing about BM’s response, is that they use misdirection to colour the perception of who’s responsible for the information.

Tom Garrity discusses the issue of reporters who jump over to PR. He suggests this is a good reminder to re-analyse how we look at and respond to social media in the marketplace. He references a survey his firm conducted in New Mexico that ranks PR and journalist as the lowest trusted professions.

Johna Burke asks what this invokes for agency proprietors as we create partnerships with clients and knowingly or unknowingly get caught up in the 24/7 news cycle. What can we do internally to resolve and manage situations like this?

Joe responds that an ethics code is not good enough. Ethics should be job one, the core of an agency’s culture, how we treat ourselves and how we treat the outside world.

Martin tries to look at it from the other side: how a call from a high profile client could colour a firm’s perceptions of the assignment, and that it’s important to hold onto your ethics and beliefs and not get caught with stars in your eyes.

Gini wonders when your defences come up and you realize something like this is a lot like Watergate.

Lisa Gerber references the point at which a crisis is inflamed or diffused and how a minority can make the majority look bad. She thinks PRSA should come out with a stronger stand and not simply focus on its members.

Gini would like to see our profession held accountable like other industries. Martin talks about how an industry-wide code of ethics that all organizations could sign would help establish professional standards… then gets off his high horse.

And that’s where this week’s podcast ends. We’d love to hear your comments on our topic, or any questions you may have.

Please 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 Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.53: A Reflection On the Year that Was

May 11, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

It’s been a year with Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and Gini Dietrich hosting Inside PR and we’re looking forward to our contract negotiations. We’d all like 100 percent raises. Too much?

What a fun look back and, it seems, our Magic 8 Balls are working.

Some of the underlying things we’ve chatted about during the past year and highlight in today’s anniversary episode:

– Comments: Dead or not?
– Billable hours: What’s the solution?
– Privacy: Sony, Apple, and responsibility.
– Tracking and measurement: Sysomos, Radian6, Salesforce, and more.
– Trends: Video, search, location, mobile payments, social media policies, and the tablet.
– eBooks: Are they changing the way we’re reading?
– All three of us have had big transitions in the past year: Martin merged his agency to become energi PR, Joe created Corum Research, and I launched Spin Sucks Pro!

Next week we’re doing a live recording from Lake Las Vegas for Counselors Academy. If you’re going to be at the conference, be sure to come by and see us! You might even get a guest appearance on next week’s show!

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.52: The launch of Spin Sucks Pro

May 5, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

It has been a busy week in the news – Prince William and Kate’s wedding, President Barack Obama announces the death of U.S. most wanted man Osama Bin Laden, and Canadians re-elect Stephen Harper as Prime Minister and give him a majority government. But none of this news is as exciting as the launch of Spin Sucks Pro.

So this week on Inside PR Gini’s wonderful voice guides Joe, Martin and our listeners through the ins and outs of Spin Sucks Pro.

As the tag line says, Spin Sucks Pro is professional development for PR and marketing pros. Spin Sucks Pro is an easy way to further your professional development while learning from the best PR and marketing minds.

The five categories of professional development fall under:

– Business

– Strategy

– Planning

– Content

– Social media

Right now you can get access to recommended resources, for example suggested blogs PR and marketing professionals should follow. Or check out the section where PR and marketing professionals are talking about issues in the public relations, marketing, social media and business worlds.

As Spin Sucks Pro grows you will eventually be able to measure and show off the work you have done on Spin Sucks Pro. For example, the leadership board, collecting badges, getting trophies and more.

Because Spin Sucks Pro is only in Beta, the registration package to have access to all the content is only $50/month.

Next week Inside PR celebrates their anniversary. So if 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 Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.50: Practice what you preach

April 21, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

On this week’s Inside PR podcast, Joe, Gini and Martin talk about the importance of not just knowing about social media, but using it as well.

Just like you would never hire an agency or a public relations consultant who has never written a press release, it is hard to justify hiring the same agency or person who has never used any social media tools.

It is official. Social media is not a phase and it is not a new toy. Clients and companies around the world know that social media is something they need to use to communicate with their audience.

However, just knowing about social media and knowing its importance is not enough. As public relations professionals, we need to learn the inside and outs of social media tools.

For example, Gini Dietrich talks about updating the software and plugins behind her blog and receiving a fatal error. It was a mistake she is glad she went through, because now she knows the importance of backing up files and information. Not only is this new skill beneficial for her, but she can now advize clients on best practices, when and how often to back your blog information. This is a skill only someone who actively uses blog would have ever figured out.

In conclusion, just do it. Get a Twitter account, start a blog, use Facebook and LinkedIn, check in to Foursquare, etc. Welcome to public relations and welcome to the skills you will need to know to be successful in public relations.

Do you have comments? 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 Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.49: Die AVE, Die!

April 12, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

Last week, PR Daily ran an OpEd about the difference between advertising and PR. The article begins with the differences: one is paid, one is earned. Yep. Totally agree. But then the article takes a time machine back 20 years.

PR takes the value of advertising and builds upon it based on enhanced impact. Editorial is third-party opinion, so the impact is considered three times that of a paid advertisement. For instance, if a half-page ad in the local newspaper costs $500, then a half-page worth of editorial in the same newspaper would be valued at $1,500.

This isn’t 1990. Publicity is not PR. Advertising equivalencies, or AVEs, were thought to be dead.

Thankfully, Ragan had the foresight to invite a seasoned veteran, Shonali Burke, to write a rebuttal, which was done with class and grace, but made a strong point. Even if clients (or your internal clients) are asking you to track AVEs, it’s your job to educate them they’re asking for the wrong “results”.

Joe Thornley also recommends familiarizing yourself with Katie Paine’s blog, where she provides all sorts of real ways to measure your PR and publicity efforts.

Die AVE, die!

In other news:

The PRSA section for agency leaders, Counselors Academy, has its annual conference in Lake Las Vegas next month. If you’re an agency leader or owner and aren’t already planning to be there, rethink your conference schedule and get there! And Inside PR will do a live recording among the slot machine sounds…or maybe Martin Waxman will bring his sound machine.
Joe attended Social 2011, the Radian6 user conference, where they announced a new analytics platform that will allow you to track data from other services, such as Klout. Read more about it on his blog.
Also struck by the composition of the group at the conference, Joe discusses his thoughts on the disappearance of personalities behind brands.
Martin is catching up on Mad Men and is watching the fourth season now. He has three things he learned from the 1960s ad agency: It takes guts, time is of the essence, and we are and always will be a service industry.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.47 – We ask Facebook a question…

March 30, 2011 • admin • Inside PR, PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

This week, we record on Monday rather than Friday which gives us an extra two days to make the podcast even more timely…

Gini starts off by noting Twitter is planning to cut down on spam, and that includes those #FollowFriday or #FF tweets with long lists of @names and nothing else. She says people will have to look at new ways to approach #FF. She chooses to write a weekly blog post featuring reasons to follow someone, like this one for Shel Holtz.

She goes on to mention Facebook’s new questions app, which apparently everyone has but Martin. Joe asks a question on FB and within four minutes gets 11 responses. (Note: by responding to Joe’s FB Q, Martin’s feature is enabled). The way it works is you can pose a question, add answers folks can select, or let people provide their own answer. Gini feels it could be a good tool for market research and points out one change similar to a Quora feature: no one should be able to edit your question or answer. Currently, Facebook questions allows other users to edit the question and answers, this can result in your question longer representing your original point. Joe says he likes the social element of Quora and isn’t sure about the value of the FB experiment.

Martin recaps a recent post about what to look for – and what to avoid – when you’re choosing an agency. Joe mentions he feels the post points out that social media is in the broader context of overall effective communications, which is where it should be.

Joe announces that (sadly), our talented producer Yasmine Kashefi is leaving Thornley Fallis to go client-side. Yasmine has done a superb job on the show and we all want to thank her and wish her all the best! We’ll miss you and hope you’ll send us some comments and thoughts.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.41 – Congratulations to Terry Fallis and a few ‘true’ confessions

February 16, 2011 • admin • PR

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

[display_podcast]

Skype issues meant we broke from our usual Friday recording time and instead talked on Monday – which meant Gini and I could extend our birthday celebrations a few more days…

We start with listener comments, first from Megan Getter, a student in Barbara Nixon’s PR class, who contends Kenneth Cole’s mis-tweet is similar to the poor judgment in the Groupon ad on the Superbowl. Gini mentions Dino Dogan who wrote a blog post about how some brands seem to be setting out to create controversy when promoting their products. Another listener, Liz, responds to our discussion on the Internet shutdown in Egypt and likens open online access to the right of free speech. Finally, Victoria Procunier asks about LinkedIn product recommendations. Gini believes we should filter through what’s real in the same way we filter reviews on other sites.

Joe congratulates Terry Fallis, Inside PR and Thornley Fallis co-founder, on his first novel’s selection as the essential Canadian novel of the decade in the Canada Reads competition. It’s a literary and social media success story and a great case study or publishers. It’s also a terrific read!

Today’s main topic is a site called Americans Against Food Taxes, which bills itself as a “coalition of concerned citizens, responsible individuals, financially strapped families, small and large businesses in communities across the country – opposed to the government tax hikes on food and beverages, including soda, juice drinks, and flavoured milks”. Joe points out the site is sponsored by organizations that sell or manufacture sweetened drinks and wonders if this isn’t an example of astroturfing. We discuss the implications and ethics around these types of sites and their impact on PR. If any of you have further insight on the group, we’d love to hear from you.

This is the first week for a new feature where we talk about a recent post on our blogs. Gini discusses her take on the Groupon Superbowl ad and I mention being SAD – that is, having split-attention disorder.

A quick reminder that we’re doing a live recording of Inside PR at PodCamp Toronto, with special guests Terry Fallis and Dave Jones! It’s an interactive session, so please bring your questions and comments. Hope to see you there.

Let us know what you think!

Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, or message us @inside_pr on Twitter. Or connect with Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and Gini Dietrich on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

(posted by MW.)