Strategic Public Relations

5 Examples of How Social Media is Changing the 2012 Elections

There are plenty of ways you can use social media to follow the long march from the Iowa Caucus to the November Elections. Several sites, including Instagram and Tumblr, are being used by candidates for the first time to engage and inform citizens.

From behind the scenes access from the media and each candidate's content to larger sites tracking how the candidates are doing overall, here are just a few sites to check out.

1) 2012 Elections Site | Google: By far, Google does the best job of a non-news organization tapping its products to bring you a complete destination for bipartisan election content. It's using search, YouTube, Google+ and even Google Calendar to fuel its efforts. And in addition to covering the elections, it has a toolkit to get voters engaged in the process.

2) Media Mentions | Washington Post: Media Mentions tracks how candidates are doing in news coverage as well as on Twitter. And The New York Times, with the help of Big Data, will tell you that candidates who do better than expected will get more media coverage as a result.

3) Tapping Klout to Rank Candidates? | CNN: CNN using Klout is a big win for the polarizing ranking site. I'm hoping someone also comes back to note how well ALL of the platforms did as a predictor of candidate success. As we've already seen, unexpected outcomes are standard fare. And we're already seeing folks use a single social platform to make assertions about which candidate might/could win. UPDATE: Mashable asserts Twitter can predict who's winning the GOP presidential race.

This is uninformed and it's already being seen that the correlation between quantity of Twitter followers, Facebook likes and YouTube views does not necessarily correlate to the number of votes. In fact, this gets back to the discussion of influence. If someone has all the social buzz, but not the votes....

4) See the Elections Unfold | Instagram: The "niche photo site" points out three major news organizations using the platform to augment their coverage. And it gives me a wicked idea (evil laugh).

5) Politics & Election News | New York Times: Book-ending our examples is the New York Times who is devoting significant resources above and beyond curating their own news to cover the election. In addition to a mobile app, its bloggers and interactive team are going deep to deliver some interesting insights and examples of social's impact in the 2012 elections.

Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn

A scan on my part shows nothing of permanent of note from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn just yet. Twitter is showing folks how to live tweet for a better election experience, noting how Twitter and live TV go together like peas and carrots. But based on its White House Town Square effort, I'm sure they're capable of a more substantive offering.

Facebook is being tapped for live chats as well. It's good to see an engagement platform being used more for, uh, engaging with voters.

Instant Social Traction
It's wild to see how quickly and thoroughly single moments in an election, or other nationally broadcast events, can unfold through social media. From Santorum's unfortunate shared meaning of his last name (no link, just trust me) to his fashion choices.

Social spoofs will be an interesting sideline to distract from the carpet bombing of political ads we'll see online and offline increasingly over the following year. In a year that election spending is touted as helping to save big media, you know we're in for some serious political noise this year.

But based on the above alone, I'll note social is helping bring a new experience to the the 2012 elections -- online, offline and on TV. It's early and we'll surely see more interesting examples of how it's used to inform and engage voters.

Sound the Bell on Pavlovian Marketing

A professional association in the online industry sent me a white paper -- via postal mail. It’s a printed piece (thick stock with an even thicker cover stock). And it has two small visuals in the entire 12-page document.

What was the white paper about? I’m not sure because every time I tried to read it, I fell asleep.

To be clear, I don’t begrudge anyone from creating, and mailing, a printed piece. There are a lot of good reasons to create a print experience. And even in a world teeming with tablets and e-readers, a print execution can help content stand out – in a good way.

Reflex Marketing
My issue is with Pavlovian Marketing. This is when we use the same old ways to talk about the new --  regardless of how ill-fitting thesee ways might appear – because that’s how it’s always been done.

There are planning rules and guidelines worth their weight in gold (audience/goals/measureable objectives/strategy and tatics). Keep them. They’re valuable. And sometimes there’s a need to leverage new rules for new tools (social media as engagement vs. broadcast).

Pavlovian Purgatory
Pavlovian Marketing is somewhere in between these two extremes. As if on command marketers spit out the same tactics. In this case, a rather academic looking white paper.

Wikipedia claims a white paper "is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem" or make a decision. "In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to documents used by businesses as a marketing or sales tool."

But does the above definiition mean a white paper has to look like the business equivalent of a college research paper? PSFK publishes white papers I'd like to print out and hang on my walls as much as I want to read it.

Far too often, marketers let formats serve as rules instead of guidelines. Take the news release. (No, please, take it. >rim shot<) The start up Square used Instagram to publish a dead simple news release -- with actual news in it.

There are a myriad of ways to reach the same goal. I’m not suggesting everything can be snack-sized into a bumper sticker, tweet, infographic, top ten five list or a 60- 30-second video. I am suggesting that we need to practice what we preach as communicators.

White Noise Paper
As far as the white paper that inspired this post, let me ask you this. If you’re audience is, by default, online and you’re trying to impress this audience with your point of view on the inner-workings of a niche in the online industry, would you use printed materials to accomplish this goal?

A wise then-client once said he knew a colleague with more than 17 years of experience. The only problem was it was a single year -- repeated 17 times. Tune out the din of the marketing bell that sounds clearly as pile after pile of examples bury you (online and offline) ultimately suffering you into a fossil. Take a deep breathe and make sure you're next work is your best work....not simply a rehash of your last work.

Cross-posted to the Bad Pitch blog.

Brands & Blogs: Building Better Relationships at Savvy Blogging Summit

It's been almost two weeks since I attended Savvy Blogging Summit with my Empower MediaMarketing colleague, Jessica George. We were asked to speak on building better relationships between brands and bloggers.

Empower's done more than a dozen different outreach projects for clients -- online and offline. We posted our presentation at the Scoop.It page we created for the event.

We learned as much as we taught at #sbsummit. The attendees had to apply to attend and were focused on improving their blog. This translated into a passionate crowd that helped reinforce a few points during our presentation and conversations with #sbsummit attendees.

Make it Easier:We extol the need for a community relations approach with bloggers over a media relations approach, but we don't identify any direct ways for a blogger to contact a brand.

Bloggers are more than familiar with being pitched. We've even counseled them on creating "About" pages and sporting badges if they're "PR Friendly." But bloggers aren't familiar with seeking out like-minded brands. Perhaps we need a page on brand sites for bloggers -- much in the way we have newsrooms for the media. If we're taking a different approach, we should have a designated way for direct contact to the right people (agency or brand).

Broadcast vs. Engagement: It always seems to come back to this topic. If you understand social media is an engagement tool and not a broadcast tool, it's easy to understand how the best bloggers for an outreach project may not have the biggest audience. We don't need the biggest audience, we need the right audience. With the right audience, brands can gain insight into how they can better meet customer needs. And they'll build loyalty throughout their interactions with these bloggers.

After identifying a handful of #sbsummit attendees my employer has worked with in the past, it was reassuring to see that these bloggers were chosen due to relevant content and a high level of engagement. Of the #sbsummit attendees, none of the bloggers we worked with previously had the highest level of reach.

Need a specific example of the potential of relevance over reach? Kosher on a Budget is a well-differentiated blog written by Mara. And in addition to the obvious kosher brands, Mara also knows which mainstream consumer brands have gone to great lengths to gain kosher status for some of their products. But some of these brands are more focused on other niches, tapping the gluten-free consumer perhaps, without realizing the full benefit of their investment in kosher. If they'd like a group of consumers as fiercely loyal to them as their gluten-free consumers -- they should contact Mara. She's got a relevant blog with a loyal readership. And regardless of audience size, I can't think of anyone better to help a mainstream brand do with their kosher products what they're already doing with their gluten-free products. Disclaimer: we cooked up this idea in a quick conversation after I finished my presentation.

Owned Media Opportunities:Tapping into the right niche of bloggers to help create content owned by the brand is an under utilized opportunity. Who better to create content that will resonate with brands' target audience than its most loyal, well-informed customers? This is not paying for a post or a product review on a blogger's site. This is tapping bloggers to fuel your next content project. It's akin to hiring freelance writers and requires full disclosure. Media outlets are already tapping into this at a local and national level. And as more brands become publishers, this is a bigger deal than brand, blogger or agency yet understands. This is due in part to brands and bloggers defining relationships to date, for the most part, as an exchange of access or free stuff for content. We've watched this approach derail some time ago.

The PR Disconnect: One of the big disconnects between bloggers and agencies can be paid media. Many bloggers are treating their blog as a business. As a result, they'll be discussing paid and owned media opportunities with brands. Most PR people conducting outreach are used to working primarily with earned media. In fact, if they've got a media relations background, odds are good they've only worked on earned and owned media opportunities. Any suggestion of paid media can create confusion and incorrect assumptions between the agency and the blogger. But not only do PR people need to get used to this concept, they need to account for it in the budget when planning outreach projects. This is not a free exchange -- free stuff for free content.

2nd Moment of Truth: A brand and a blogger may be perfectly matched. But a poor initial pitch, or disconnects like the one above, can prevent any relationship from being created. Bloggers and brands should give each other a second chance. One attendee told a story of a bad pitch that turned into a business relationship. So instead of the first moment of truth, perhaps we need to put more weight on the second moment of truth when building relationships between brands and bloggers.

The Hypocrisy of Silos:Many of the #sbsummit attendees focus on saving money in some form of another -- from living more simply and being frugal to tapping into coupons, promotions and other deals from various brands. But to mention TLC's show "Extreme Couponing" was the rough equivalent of saying Voldemort to a Harry Potter fan. Why? The show single-handedly has marketers putting all coupon bloggers, savings bloggers, frugal living bloggers into a single, unseemly bucket.

The week we presented, Ad Age's cover story even warned marketers to "beware the coupon mom." But to make such a general, sweeping statement based on the extreme of one "reality" show is foolish at best. It's akin to journalists letting a few PR people making bad pitches color their view of the entire industry. Looking at the attendee's blogs, I saw a more common theme of home, family and wholesome living. The bottom line being that agencies need to spend more quality time developing a targeted list of bloggers. There are many facets to any blog. And while they may have a primary focus, they cannot always be placed into a single silo.

All of the above are either opportunities or reminders of what's keeping brands, agencies and bloggers from doing something bigger, better and more effective for all involved. Needless to say, Jessica and I really enjoyed being involved with the event.

Twitpic, Instagram, Flickr & Facebook - Got the Picture?

For some reason, I know that I started using Twitpic three years ago today.

You could care less and I don't blame you.

So in addition to pointing to my first Twitpic, most viewed Twitpic and one or two others illustrating this post, I'll make some observations about photo sharing platforms in general.

You may not care about this either. But the odds just shifted significantly.

All Bets Are Off
Just a few short months ago it seems we could classify platforms based on what you did there: social networking, photo sharing, publishing. But even then it didn't acknowledge LinkedIn's focus on business, Facebook's ginormous user base, Flickr's deep community and Say Media's killer Ad Network.

And as these sites have evolved, so have consumer habits. Case in point: the second most used search engine is YouTube and not Yahoo. Yahoo's busy competing with AOL as they try to become content players instead of what they built their brands on respectively.

Assumptions Make Us Stoopid
I'm not being nostalgic with the above observations. My point is to dig deeper and go beyond commonly-held beliefs. Platforms evolve quickly...more quickly than the dot com days.

We assume that teens do nothing more than text. That's a safe assumption since the number of text messages sent and received each day exceeded the population of the earth -- in 2007. But it's not safe to assume they don't watch TV. They simply text while doing it. It's called a multi-screen experience.

So while Flickr and the other two top photo sharing platforms combined are dwarfed by Facebook when it comes to number of images hosted, this is more than a quantity discussion. Consider what else Flickr provides its users. That's why they're still around today -- in blatant defiance of The Highlander Complex. And if that reason ties to your target audience it's a viable option for your consideration.

Less is Even More
Twitpic and Instagram are other disruptions in the photo sharing discussion. Suddenly my iPhone can take and edit pictures that look better than the ones I take with my camera. And it's obviously easier to share those pictures. As we see a trend of consumers that are more into documenting the experience than the experience itself, we need to consider what that means.

This is all part of a larger discussion around content and what value it delivers the consumer and their role in creating it. Content is king oversimplifies the discussion. You have to consider the consumer, which then drives how and where you serve up "his majesty." And it doesn't even begin to take into consideration concepts like sharing and curation.

Slowly Unveiling a Story
The short form, heavily-social Twitpic, Instagram and others offer opportunities to tell very short stories. Tagging helps fashion those stories into volumes. Two interesting examples of sites trying to tap into this are Hash Album and a promotional site set up by Brisk for SXSW, BriskPic. It was a crowd-sourcing/packaging test by Pepsi. Did they learn from it? Let's assume yes. But don't underestimate the power of simplicity when it comes to images. Could they replace a news release? Depends on the news. Much like Twitter, it's forcing communications to be stronger, yet shorter. Our skills increase as consumer attention spans shrink.

What examples have you seen of brands tapping into photo sharing in a way that added to their message? 

Engagement: Getting Brands and Consumers to Commit

We talk a lot about creating engagement between brands and consumers. And that's because social platforms are an engagement tool, not a broadcast tool.

But after awhile, it can start to sound like we're trying to arrange marriages. Perhaps it's the fact that several of my coworkers were recently married or are preparing to walk down the aisle. Either way, we can over complicate consumer engagement as much as we can over simplify it.

Too Complicated?
When we ask consumers to vote, generate content, watch a video or otherwise, we need to ask if we're merely creating a transaction to generate a metric. And if the answer is not clear, well, it probably is clear.

Social efforts like voting campaigns can do a lot over the long term. They can also do nothing more than preserve one-way communication between a brand and a consumer. We tend to over think this to achieve an easily-generated quantitative metric. This example from TED shows a simple, powerful way to engage consumers and achieve qualitative metrics.

And while this New Orleans-based example might be considered a bit esoteric, it is from TED after all, there are just as many examples online from brands including Starbucks and P&G.

Empower MediaMarketing, my employer, has detailed more than a few simple ways to engage with consumers. There are any number of ways to bring online efforts into the age of participation. and still be able to measure the end result.

Too Simple?
In preparing for an upcoming conference focused on blogging, a fellow blogger remarked that she's "tired of brands puking swag all over bloggers and expecting them to clean it up." She means she's tired of brands taking a one-size fits all approach -- pushing products and logo-laden tchotkes at bloggers and expecting a glowing post in response.

Per usual, whether it's the customer, a blogger or a member of the media, it takes an approach customized to the individual. 


Cross-posted to my work blog. 

Can You Pass the Social Media Relations Quiz?

 

In 2007, I wrote a post called "Ready to Pitch a Blog? Take This Quiz First." Three and a half years later, I'm revisiting it to celebrate the Bad Pitch blog's Fifth Birthday.

While I thought I'd be noting how much has changed since it was written, it still holds up. But I've edited it a bit to better reflect 2011.
---
Everyone wants to know the secret formula to pitching blogs. The secret is it takes more than pitching.

While many approach bloggers and journalists similarly, there's as much different about them as there is similar. From the amount of time needed to pitch and where each group fits in a strategy to the materials and approach taken, there's a difference.

As blog-savvy firms forge ahead, here are six questions you should be able to answer in the affirmative before you start pitching a blog. Have you...

Read more than the most recent post of the blog?

Searched the blog for your client or relevant product/service/industry terms to see if they are even covered?

Subscribed to the blog’s RSS feed or e-mail delivery to make it easier to follow over time and to boost their audience metrics?

Left a comment on the blog that continues the discussion and is unrelated to your pitch?

Looked for posts and links from their home page telling you if/how the blog author likes to receive information?

Sent the blog author an email unrelated to your pitch?

Does this read like a lot of work? Keep in mind you're building a relationship, not "puking swag all over bloggers and expecting them to clean it up."**

If your news doesn’t merit this level of effort, don’t pitch it to a blog. This will eliminate a few of the irrelevant news releases many blogs receive.

If you answered no to any of the above, you may need to ramp up your approach to mainstream media first. Here are four tips.

Send a reporter a relevant story idea or a lead that has nothing to do with your client. It builds the relationship and turns you into a source. This increases the odds you’ll be sought out for a story in the future.

Set up a Google News Alert on a specific reporter to follow their work more closely.

Seek out a reporter on Slideshare, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter to learn more about them and connect with them as relevant. Just make sure it’s in context. Do NOT pitch a reporter using these channels unless they specifically request it. That's just skeevy.

Study up on current events…news is media relations jet fuel.

Does this read like a lot of work? Well as the definition of a media outlet morphs, so must our approach to engaging with them. And as more and more bloggers extend the olive branch, the price of a bad pitch is increasing -- less coverage, whiny bloggers, angry clients and amused competitors.

**This is a paraphrased quote from blogger Andrea Deckard when she noted successful brands and agencies are building relationships. But "many brands still puke swag all over bloggers and expect them to clean it up."

Cross-posted to the Bad Pitch blog

 

Defining Paid, Earned and Owned Media

At SummitUp yesterday, I discussed integrating paid, owned, earned and, as a result, social media.

Media Mash Up: Integrating Chaos** -- became a fitting title for my presentation as I've realized how much change is threading through media. Classifying media types by silos, buckets or Venn diagrams is no longer possible. Even AdAge refers to it as "whatever it is that we're defining as media these days."

To integrate across media, marketers must be more flexible about how content, consumers and technology connect with a brand.

Serious karma found Pete Blackshaw laying groundwork for my presentation when he presented the following slide in his keynote presentation earlier that day. "His We Can No Longer Silo Media" slide details how a brand can drive earned media through paid or earned channels. This is something we've been discussing for awhile and it's interesting to see how it's evolved in just a year's time.

Clear as Mud
Social Media can be triggered by paid, earned or owned media. And social media can also be paid, earned or earned media. It's clear that social media is messy. It disrupts silos -- media silos as well as operational silos in a company. Social media is not linear. It is a paradox. Is it shared media? Yes. Spreadable media? Yes. But it's not something a PowerPoint slide can capture with some Smart Art. Not yet. 

As consumers, content and technology continue to change, we need to spend more time studying our audience as well as their online and offline behaviors. Mapping this against the sales funnel makes it easier to consider how various media can connect with customers through this cycle.

Iteration or Irrelevancy?
To better integrate something seemingly amorphous, we must plan for ongoing change. We must set aside resources, time and talent that can test and learn from the shiny new. If something new impacts business goals, it gets further consideration. Otherwise we risk losing focus on sites and technology that are getting a lot of industry attention. Planning for a constant of change is not second nature. It's not easy. But it's also the going premium for irrelevancy insurance.

** I kicked off the presentation with a mash up of Aerosmith and Alicia Keys to underscore how content and technology are meshing together to create some emotional connections with consumers. And I ended the presentation giving out examples of the first mash up we experience growing up. Music and candy go a long way to impact your speaker feedback forms.

Cross-posted to my work blog, Social Study.



 

Social Blurs Media Lines

In the article, "Wanna Buy a Blog?" Ad Age reports Forbes is selling access to its readers by selling advertisers blogs that operate alongside other Forbes blogs.

"This isn't the 'sponsored post' of yore; rather, it's giving advocacy groups or corporations such as Ford or Pfizer the same voice and same distribution tools as Forbes staffers, not to mention the Forbes brand.

'In this case the marketer or advertiser is part of the Forbes environment, the news environment,' said Mr. DVorkin.

The product itself is called AdVoice, and the notion is that in a world of social media, corporations have to become participants and, in a sense, their own media companies. Corporations these days also have to face the practical problem of fewer business reporters left to pitch. 'There's fewer ways to get your message out and that's a fact,' he said."

Will brands buy access? Yes. Will readers react positively? That's entirely up to the brands. AdVoice shows how the lines between paid, owned and earned media are blurring thanks in part to social media.

It seems like a fundamental discussion. It isn't. Beginning to look at your content as part of a paid and earned mix is the first step to integrating all three. But even if you don't, the technology is already integrating it for you. Social media is designed to help us publish, share and syndicate content seamlessly.

New Content Models Needed
In the past, we neatly organized different forms of media in well-divided silos. But social media is messy. It crosses silos to create an ugly Venn diagram. Circles overlap all over the place and no one seems comfortable with it....whether it's on paper, online or within an organization.

Forbes is creating a new revenue stream. This isn't news. This is what we’ve been telling old media they’ve needed to do for some time now. If a brand puts forth bad, self-serving content, they're pissing away their media spend. Readers will gravitate towards good content and they're sure to out anyone trying to masquerade as anything other than themselves.

The benefit of this social media mess is that we've gained a new level of transparency. This isn't the equivalent of consumers losing the separation between church and state. Or old media and brands making a back room deal at the expense of its readers. AdVoice will clearly distinguish its content from editors content according to the article.

"There's a flow of content that's contextual. Anything can appear in any place as long as it's contextual -- that's the web and we are bringing that sensibility to the magazine."

As their options continue to multiply, consumers are becoming more discerning about the media they consume. Contextual media, along with curated media, will continue to morph the already elastic definition of content. Marketers need to understand the various implications and how this impacts their mix of paid, earned and owned media. But at the end of the day, this is more opportunity than challenge.

Influence, huh, yeah, what is it good for...

With apologies to Edwin Starr, when did the word influence join the commoditized dictionary with experience, integrated, solutions and the like?

Was it when the word was first used (incorrectly) as a synonym to popularity? I'm not sure. And I don't really care. But popularity is not the same as influence and ever since Fast Company's much-discussed "Influence Project" debuted, I've become interested in defining influence once and for all.

The Importance of Influence
At Empower, we use influence as a guide to our blogger relations efforts. It's an important metric. We know it makes more sense to talk to the people that count than simply count the people that talk about you. If you think influence is popularity, you'd assume a tweet from me was more influential than a tweet from Pete Blackshaw. And anyone that follows the marketing and advertising industries understands how flawed that thinking is.

All Eyes on SXSWi 2011
Instead of just blogging about it, I've connected with three other industry professionals to focus on the topic and present our findings at SXSWi. But we need your help. Please vote for our panel and leave a comment at the panel picker adding your thoughts to this conversation.

Please vote for Influencer Throwdown: Proving Influence Once & For All. Helping me clarify this important concept are David Binkowski, Krista Neher and Saul Colt. It's important concept. It's important to note this panel will NOT be the usual death by PowerPoint. We'll also have some constructive conclusions in addition to our strong opinions and energized group discussion. You'll have to register to vote and comment.

Our panel is one of more than 2,300 vying for a spot on the packed schedule for Austin next year. There are several ideas worth considering just from the Cincinnati area alone. Once you're registered, consider the following panels:

* Branded! Grocery Store Insights in the Digital Age: The team from LPK will be pouring some hard-earned insights into their presentation. You can't walk through a grocery store in North America without seeing some of LPK's branding and packaging work.

* Are We Not Men? Reaching New American Dads: Craig Heimbuch from Man of the House is spearheading this panel. Cincinnati Social Media had Man of the House at a recent event on community management. It's a great community sponsored by P&G with a lot of important things to say. I for one am hoping they can get dads portrayed as something other than out of touch buffoons in today's advertising.

* The Future of Nonprofits: Building Change-able Organizations: Randall Moss and David Neff will provide practical tools to create a culture of innovation within any non-profit organization.

* Rapid Prototyping a new model for Higher Education: Glenn Platt, one of two presenters from Miami University's Interactive Studies puts it best: "The destructive creation that entrepreneurs have embraced has put the traditional university into a tailspin. The presenters will present an explicit model for the future of higher education. We will examine the entire higher education eco-system and there are no sacred cows. The well-designed higher education experience involves theory, practice, collaboration, cooperative authorship, distribution & re-construction of knowledge, and radical re-thinking of credentials."

A diverse, world-class group bringing serious ideas to bear just from my home town. Be sure to rock the vote and I really appreciate your time and consideration. Voting ends this week. So I'll resume regular programming shortly. ;-)

Cross-posted to my work blog, Social Study.

The Press Release (a rant. for immediate release.)

Should the press release die? Or should it just become a social media press release? Hey, a press release and social media are like peanut butter and chocolate folks. Are you going to pass on a Reese's?! 

Um, who cares?!

OK, I understand there's a sh!t ton of money tied up in the distribution of press releases --from the agencies writing them and the blogs, conferences, workshops, e-books and teleseminars offering tips on how to write better press releases to the wire services and media databases helping to push them out (more than 2,000 each day on average I'm told).

The press release represents its own ecosystem of content and some of that content might even be newsworthy. Even the Bad Pitch blog recommends the topic as part of a balanced diet. But when the topic eclipses the industry discussion, is that balanced? 

There are plenty of times the press release is a worthy topic of discussion. I'm not overlooking the obvious need to teach, practice and hone our craft. But the current and steady level of discussion around the press release I'm seeing in the industry is comparable to a group of world famous artists constantly talking about which type of frame is best for their paintings. It's well-intended, but it misses the point. 

Rant, Party of One?
At the end of the day, if it's newsworthy, it doesn't matter what format it's in. Serve it up on toast...there are more than enough creative options. But the more the public relations industry talks about the press release, the more we have an answer as to why PR doesn't have a seat at the table.

The public relations industry needs to spend as much time on critical thinking, where we provide more value, as it does on the nitty gritty of the tactics. Maybe this rant is telling me the industry needs to spend more time on critical thinking. Perhaps it's the challenge of a discipline that must scale between thoughtful strategy and detail-oriented execution. But that's more of an opportunity than anything else.

The Impossible Dream uploaded by Sagesnow
Cross-Posted to the Bad Pitch blog