Inside PR 3.69: Behind-the-Scenes of Spin Sucks

April 18, 2014 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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We have a very special guest on today’s Inside PR.

She is someone near and dear to my heart, both personally and professionally.

She was with me in Toronto a couple of weeks ago for Third Tuesday and we caught up with her to talk blogging, editorial calendars, and community.

That person is the one and only Lindsay Bell-Wheeler, the content director for Spin Sucks.

Lindsay and I have worked together for nearly two years and have evolved the blog from a top 25 contender to one of the top (or the top, depending on which list you look at) PR blog in the world. She also manages the strategic content direction for our clients and coaches a team of writers and editors.

I let Joe and Martin lead the conversation, but managed to get in a few quips of my own.

She didn’t know she was going to be a guest on the show (I know how stressed out she would have made herself had I told her) so her comments, jokes, and wit are completely off-the-cuff…and brilliant.

I’m excited to introduce you to her and excited for you to learn more about the behind-the-scenes happenings of the crazy place we call home.

Enjoy!

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We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Inside PR is part of the FIR Podcast Network.

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

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

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

Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 366: Kelly Blazek, LinkedIn Connections, and Proper Communication

March 19, 2014 • Gini Dietrich • social media

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Martin Waxman is back and we are grateful because he is much better at the intro and closing than Joe Thornley and me.

We kick the show off by talking about the Kelly Blazek crisis situation that happened a couple of weeks ago.

As a quick refresher (or the story, for those of you who missed it), the 2013 Cleveland Communicator of the Year received an email from a young professional who is moving to Ohio and searching for a job.

Because Blazek runs the 7,300 member marketing job board for the Cleveland area, this young woman sent her a LinkedIn message, explaining who she was, her business expertise, and what kinds of jobs she could do. She then asked to join the jobs board.

What she received from Blazek, in return, was both unprofessional and … strange … for a communicator.

While we don’t beat this horse to death, it did create an interesting conversation about LinkedIn and how we each use the tool.

As it turns out, we have three different uses for it: Ambivalence, referrals, and contact management, which makes it an interesting look at how there really is no right way or wrong way to use social media. Except to not take your bad day out on someone asking or help.

Martin also mentions he hates the generic LinkedIn requests. You know the one. The, “I’d like to add you to my professional network” with no mention on how you know the person or why you’d like to connect.

He also talks about his pet peeve, which is people who have never worked with you asking you to write a recommendation.

After you listen, we leave the floor to you. What are your personal rules about LinkedIn connections?

P.S. While Terry Fallis’s new book, No Relation, doesn’t come out until May, as is his modus operandi, he is podcasting it for you ahead of time. Check it out!

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We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Inside PR is part of the FIR Podcast Network.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

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

Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 363: Where Does Social Media Belong?

February 12, 2014 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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First things first, be sure to wish Martin Waxman a happy birthday in the comments!

Now on to the slightly less important stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, Sam Fiorella wrote a blog post called, “Why Your Social Media Team Should Be PR Professionals.”

As PR professionals, it makes sense we’d be curious to read more (and you will want to, as well).

If you’re like us, you’ll find yourself nodding all the way through his blog post.

Yes, PR pros know how to manage crises.

Yes, we are trained to manage reputations.

Yes, we know the right questions to ask to create a calm before the storm.

Yes, we can train pros in other disciplines to manage themselves appropriately online.

Yes, most of the knee jerk reactions that happen in social media are done so because the community management is handled by someone without these skills.

Now go to the comments and read what Danny Brown said.

“Disagree. Two words – Justine Sacco.”

We recently talked about the Sacco saga. She is a communications professional. She knew better. And yet…

Read the blog post, read the comments, and listen to what we have to say about where social media belongs.

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We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Inside PR is part of the FIR Podcast Network.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

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

Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.58: The New Business Process

December 12, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • Agency Life

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The new business process is always an interesting one for agencies.

RFPs, networking, conferences, and trade shows…oh my!

During this week’s episode we talk about blogging, speaking, and other ways to generate qualified leads, just like many of us would do for our clients, and Joe shares a secret on how they recently generated 15 qualified leads for the video side of his business.

But that’s not all!

Martin throws in some face-to-face opportunities, and recommends we get away from the echo chamber.

And I share our number one driver of new business: Speaking. Joe says he has lost his appetite for traveling (me too!), but I counter that with how well it works and provide an example. Joe also makes a good point about sticking around after you speak to talk with those who are too shy to approach a speaker as he or she is leaving the stage.

But the creme de la creme is what Martin proposes agencies do when asked to write a proposal. It’s an interesting thought and one that is worth exploring.

So take a listen and let us know what you think. If you’ve tried his idea, we’d love to hear about that, too.

P.S. Between the recording of this episode and today, Chicago got seven inches of snow. So I’m no longer jealous of Joe!

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We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

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

Inside PR is part of the FIR Podcast Network.

Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.53: Seed&Spark

November 6, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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This week on Inside PR…

Roving reporter, Martin Waxman, talks to Emily Best, the CEO and founder of Seed&Spark.

Seed&Spark is a one-stop shop where filmmakers can crowdfund, distribute, and interact with their audience and the broader independent film community.

What does this have to do with PR, you ask? Joe Thornley asked that very question and got an answer!

We talk about how much of the social media conversation has devolved into things such as Klout scores. The chat with Emily reminds us there is a higher purpose of being valuable to your community and how we’ve lost that in recent years.

What’s also interesting about Emily’s mantra is the differences between the film industry and marketing. She talks about how the film industry has figured out storytelling, but doesn’t know how to build community and engagement. And marketing can build community and engagement, but hasn’t figured out how to tell compelling stories that aren’t self-centered.

The tie-in, of course, is Seed&Spark. They create the opportunity for the film industry to build fans, along the same model the music industry uses.

It’s an interesting business model and, even if you don’t work within the film industry, has some important content creation and delivery lessons.

Before you take a listen, the two books Joe mentioned are The Whuffie Factor and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

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We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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

Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.50: Fake Reviewers and the Global Laws

October 16, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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Recently the New York attorney general’s office conducted a year-long sting to find people who are posting fake reviews online in exchange for money.

What they found is there were 19 companies paying anywhere from $1 to $10 per positive review posted. They fined the organizations a combined $350,000 for the unethical work.

Michael Lasky, an attorney who specializes in PR firms, wrote about the undercover operation and provided four lessons for PR professionals, in a recent PR Week column.

The warning is clear: While the sting only looked at SEO firms, PR could be next.

So what does it mean for PR firms?

We already know Wikipedia is adamant against PR professionals posting anything in there on behalf of their clients, unless it’s clearly disclosed. And, ProPublica just came out against the New York Times for not disclosing who helped them with the President Putin editorial (hint: It was Ketchum).

So where is the line?

We know what is black (fake reviews, astroturfing, whisper campaigns) and we know what is white (honesty, transparency, disclosure). But what about the grey?

Say you work for a multi-national company that has offices around the globe. You write a blog post and ask your colleagues to share it on their social networks.

Is that ethical?

Or you have clients who produce content and you ask your team to comment on it and share it.

Is that ethical?

Is it realistic to expect the New York Times or the BBC to disclose the PR firms they worked with on the stories that had some outside influence?

This week’s episode covers these issues and how to tow the grey line.

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We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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

Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.47: Viral Videos and What Makes the News

September 25, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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What constitutes news?

Martin Waxman and I talk about what constitutes news and how easy it is to trick not just the Interwebz, but the news media as well.

Case in point: A young woman was practicing her twerking in her apartment when her roommate opened the door into her and she fell onto a coffee table full of lit candles. Her yoga pants caught on fire and the video ends with her screaming and jumping around, trying to put out the flames.

Jimmy Kimmel invited her on the show and it came out the video was a fake, the girl is a stunt actor, and yet…all the news media covered it as if it were a real thing.

As well, The Onion had a piece by Meredith Artley, the managing editor of CNN.com, about why Miley Cyrus’ VMA performance was their top story of the day.

It’s an interesting conundrum. We are attracted to the train wrecks, which create the eyeballs and the clicks, but we complain when the media doesn’t cover the more serious news of the day, such as what’s happening in Syria or Kenya.

So what makes the news? If you are in charge of a brand’s journalism, do you cover what’s important or what drives eyeballs? Do we have a right to complain about the viral videos and twerking if we are more interested in the gossip and train wrecks instead of the hard news?

We would love your thoughts.

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

Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.43: Online Security for PR Pros

August 21, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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To start, Martin Waxman is gaming his Klout score by using Spin Sucks as his platform. He began with a Klout score of 68, used a guest post to encourage social shares and climbed to 70 before settling on 69.

Learn more about the experiment and what we learned in just a few days about the influence game.

But that’s not the main point of our podcast today.

The point of our discussion comes from a question from Liza Butcher.

She asks:

My Twitter account has been “compromised” three times in the last two weeks. I would love if you could do a show or part of a show on the best way to protect yourself and/or your organization from being hacked or, as Twitter calls it, “compromised.” Do you think this is something that is happening more and more?

As it relates to online privacy, I relate a story that happened with Spin Sucks where we were under attack for more than two weeks. Because we use LastPass to generate our passwords every few days, we lucked out and the worst that happened was the blog was slow. But if it had been two months ago, they would have gotten us for sure.

We discuss what online passwords mean to each of you personally, how to secure yourself, how to use good judgement, and which tools to use.

A special thanks to Liza and to David Jones for their comments.

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Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.41: Ctrl Alt Delete

July 25, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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When Six Pixels of Separation came out, it was a book ahead of its time and it put Mitch Joel on the map. To me, he was one of those authors I was dying to meet, but also a little intimidated by because of his thinking that really made you wonder if he had a crystal ball.

I remember the first time he commented on Spin Sucks. I’m pretty sure I ran around the office screaming, “Mitch Joel just commented on the blog!”

Since then we’ve become friends. While we don’t agree on everything, I respect the heck out of his brain and look forward to the debate that ensues when a topic of disagreement arises.

Now he is back with another book, titled “Ctrl Alt Delete” and it was my pleasure to sit down for a few minutes with him to understand why business leaders need to reboot their businesses, and the rest of us need to reboot our lives.

The book is divided into two sections: The first is for business leaders and the second is for everyone else.

As I listened to his calm and reassuring voice read the book to me through my earbuds while I rode my bike, I panicked a little bit about the advice he gives to individuals in “Reboot: You.”

He’s not wrong about any of it. If anything, it should inspire you to want more from your careers, to maintain control of your destiny, and to find the perfect position for you that allows you to do what you love. But, as a business owner, you always fear you’re not running your organization in a way that is flexible enough to move with the trends, but also that your team will get fed up and leave.

We talk about that, about how to get digital into your blood – even if you’re not a digital native – and about what the future of business looks like in the next 10 years.

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Inside PR 3.39: A Change for Native Advertising

July 15, 2013 • Gini Dietrich • PR

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The FTC recently sent a letter to Google, Yahoo!, Bing about native advertising and how they must require their users to show what is paid and what is not, in terms of content.

This changes the stage a bit for native advertising. In what started out as a paid play that looked just like the content shared on the site, it now must be disclosed it is actually different than everything else because it was paid for or sponsored.

Not unlike adding “advertorial” or “paid advertising” across the top of content in magazines, this new rule follows the FTC disclosure guidelines they’ve been aggressively promoting for years.

As PR professionals, we lean toward the editorial side, but because native advertising wants to look and feel and sound like valuable content, it is quickly becoming our jobs to figure out how this will play out for our organizations or our client’s organizations.

But native advertising is not a trend started by the PR industry; it was started by our advertising colleagues, but it also serves the needs of media outlets who are on a one-way street. Because of that, communications professionals need to experiment to help journalists make this work. It becomes about how we create content that serves our audience, is not an intrusion, is fun, informative, and increases value of earned media.

It is, in fact, not unlike what the ad agencies are doing with longer form videos that serve as shareable commercials.

Also during this episode, learn about the mistake Martin Waxman made during last week’s podcast and what Richard Edelman shared at IABC about the future of PR.

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