Strategic Public Relations

Word of the Year: BLOG

This news from Reuters is not too surprising

A four-letter term that came to symbolize the difference between old and new media during this year's presidential campaign tops U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster's list of the 10 words of the year.

Merriam-Webster Inc. said on Tuesday that blog, defined as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks," was one of the most looked-up words on its Internet sites this year.

Is it me, or is this more fuel for Steve Rubel's campaign to have bloggers named as Time Magazine's "Person of the Year"?

Cell Phone RSS: "Can you read me now?"

We’ve been hoping to get RSS on cell phones for a while and are starting to see it happen.

Text-based RSS is a natural for delivering news to small cell phone screens. Cell phones are already more of a utility device in Europe and anecdotal research shows us that teens are pushing us, kicking and screaming, towards “Swiss army cell phone” status here in the States.

Poynter shows us that European teens are using cell phone text messaging more than the Internet to communicate. For news, these same teens rely on the Internet more than newspapers. All points to keep in mind if you are trying to reach this increasingly influential audience.

Technology’s impact on consumer behavior is always fun to watch. But as Shel Holtz notes, we should be pragmatic and focus on strategies to reach our goal instead of the latest shiny bead that catches our eye (he notes with a new Dell computer en route to his home for Christmas).

So if this research is the shape of things to come, how will public relations adapt to reach our target audiences? Dan Forbush is rounding up a few PR bloggers to consider this in late January for his  Global PR Wiki project. We'll also make some predictions for group dissection discussion.

In a heat of masochism, I signed up for this event. So I'll be shifting my gaze from my navel to the crystal ball. One prediction I’ll make now—regardless of what future technology may bring, most news releases will still suck.

Research Sells the Story

I've made the comment "research sells the story" enough on this blog that I am not even going to link to one of them.

My new, favorite example of this concept comes from PNC Bank.

Since 1983, the company has been releasing research on how much the gifts from the 12 Days of Christmas would actually cost to purchase. Fine. It is cutesy and corny but it is clearly evergreen. It is also easy ink with a message positioning the bank as having a sense of humor, while loosely reinforcing its financial expertise.

This "news" story also brings up the most important point of any research project—follow-up. Establish a benchmark in year one and conduct the research again to compare future results against it. Budgets are always tight, but research has proven its worth time and again in fueling smart decisions. The longer you do the research, the easier it is to spot trends. This is the only way to explain this odd quote:

"The cost of skilled dancers has steadily increased, while the unskilled milk maids haven't managed an increase in pay for many years," said Jeff Kleintop, chief investment strategist for PNC Advisors.

Me? I'll settle for a new computer.

Thanks

Add this quick note to the pile of gone fishin' signs being posted throughout the blogosphere. Thanksgiving approaches and I'll be diving into the festivities at close of business today.

It seems trivial to try and post a list of things I am thankful for. So let's just say I am very thankful and I hope you take some time to review the great things in your life over the next few days.

Cheers.

Blogs' News Impact

I'll be posting even less than usual over the next week or so. But I have a few items in the hopper you will enjoy upon my return, including Kryptonite's side of the story. Yep, the topic has been blogged to death. But I touched base with Donna Tocci, Kryptonite's PR Manager, for her side of the story.

In the meantime, here is some more coverage  from the Online News Association Conference:

"Our credibility is suffering with so many people rushing to publish things without checking them out," said Mindy McAdams, a University of Florida journalism professor. "Blogging is really great. I like that more and more people have a voice. That's good ... But it doesn't give people who call themselves journalists an excuse to not check out the information."

Maybe instead of comparing blogging to baking (lots of fresh stories every day), we should compare it to making wine (fewer stories, better developed and fact checked)? It will never happen. The ability to publish minute by minute ensures that quantity will usually win over quality when it comes to blog content. But journalists can point to this fact as just one more difference between us and them.

Post recap: work calls and speed kills.

Local Web Wars

Driving into work today, I realized Cincinnati is in the midst of a local Web war.

CincyMLS is a board of realtors Web site that tracks all real estate listed with any Cincinnati realtor. What the site lacks in design is more than made up for in its utility. It allows you to quickly, and easily, zero in on homes for sale from the comfort of your, uh, home.

CincyMLS announced it is discontinuing this popular Web site. They claim that each realtor posts their listings to their own site, so it does not make sense to aggregate them on their own.

Huh? Making the consumer's job harder and taking a once level playing field and tilting it to those realtors that have a better Web presence makes no sense to me. This move will be a huge loss.

But my marketing heart got a warm glow during my morning commute when I saw a proactive billboard from Huff Realty, directing folks to their Web site. The billboard looks a lot like their homepage (more bonus points) claiming they are "like MLS, but better."

It is great to see one of the smaller, local realtor launch the first salvo in this skirmish. Not to mention, the use of conspicuous outdoor advertising is the perfect approach to gaining eyeballs and market share. The billboard should find its target audience as they are driving around looking at different homes for sale. Huff gets a Gallant for making the best of a bad situation.

Interestingly enough, as I prepared this post, I typed in cincymls.org by mistake and found that Remax has purchased this URL and use it to push people to their site--another sign that the games have begun.

Brainstorm, P&G Style

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports on an "innovation celebration" held by Procter & Gamble yesterday.

"More than 2,000 Procter & Gamble Co. workers from around the globe gathered this week for pep talks on how to accelerate P&G's innovation efforts throughout its global empire. P&G touted the gathering, called "Flashpoint," as a celebration of its innovation programs in functions as diverse as marketing, manufacturing and research and development.

"Finding new ways to reach the people who buy its stable of about 250 brands is not a new experience for P&G. The company was a pioneer in radio and television advertisements. And it spends billions every year on consumer research, advertising and media, making it one of the world's biggest advertisers. But in the new "Consumer Republic" touted by global marketing officer Jim Stengel, it's not enough."

It's one thing to gather a few colleagues and start spitballing ideas in a conference room. But consider turning a brainstorm into a trade show where you pull together 2,000 of your far flung employees to help reinvent its approach to consumers? It should be interesting to see what comes out of this Brand Daddy's pow wow. I'm sure it will help them clean up in the consumer packaged goods industry.

Journalists' Personal Web Sites

Dan Forbush at MediaInsider points us to a handy page brimming with journalist web sites from Sreetips.

While I'm sure there are more journos with an online presence than the 100 profiled here, it is a great place to start looking up reporters in your contact database. Sreetips offers us one more method to identify targeted media and learn more about them before crafting a relevant pitch customized to their beats and publication's needs.

Creating Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership is a term thrown around enough times by enough people that it tends to lose face value. So it is great when we have some concrete examples of thought leadership.

Steve Rubel gives us the first example over at Micropersuasion. Steve has gone well beyond the blog to evangelize his interests, taking his thoughts to the dais and industry influencers, publishing in other formats and garnering some highly visible national coverage in print and radio.

The end result is thought leadership in action as veteran bloggers watched Steve build a following in a few months time. I tip my hat to his efforts. It is a perfect example of the building effects of promotion. If you charted the evolution of Micropersuasion, I'm sure that each new opportunity was created in part by the last. Not to mention plain old sweat equity.

The next example comes from Elizabeth Albrycht. Elizabeth stepped up during Global PR Blog Week offering tech support and organizational guidance to a globally dispersed group. She is now turning the virtual pow wow into a real world conference: New Communications Forum 2005. While PRSA's technology section offered a teleseminar on blogging recently, it is great to see someone take action in response to the need for communications-focused programming around blogs.

Elizabeth also gets snaps for making the event global. The end result for Elizabeth is the opportunity to create a unique, global perspective of best practices in this emerging field.

Now while some may consider this post navel-gazing, I am willing to bet those same people do not have any examples of their own to point to. Drop me a line if I am mistaken.

Help Wanted: Building Industry Blogs

PressThink's Jay Rosen is looking for a hand and a handout—of sorts.

"This is not a job. I can't pay (well, maybe a small amount that would be symbolic only). But I can get the right person many thousands of readers--including working journalists--some blog visibility, your name in Google, a chance to have voice in debates about the future of the press, and to plunge into Web publishing, build a brand. You would need about 10-15 free hours a week to do this well.

"Also, I am looking also for a donor--foundation or individual--who might be persuaded to make a (tax-deductible) gift to NYU for purposes of sustaining and improving PressThink. The most immediate need is to pay a second contributor; beyond that I have other ideas for an expanded service that take investment. I also need a re-design."

I'm willing to bet Jay could rustle up a redesign for gratis while he's at Bloggercon and I hope he finds a patron. PressThink is a great blog and has grown in readership and influence since its launch.

Once you have built a loyal readership, you feel a responsibility to post. This can be a problem. Most of the public relations and marketing industry blogs are written by our peers during their off time—for fun and for free.

After awhile, an extra hand or some income to show for the effort does not seem like such a bad idea. Recently, Rick Bruner got a paying gig with DoubleClick and tapped some bloggers to pitch in on posting. As good blogs get better, and grow their readership, I am willing to bet that the calls for content and cash continue (can you say, alliteration overload?).