Where Do You Stand?

Since joining the Standing team, Marijean has grown from resident blogspert (web log expert) to everything-onlinespert … and we love her for it! Non-profits in the Charlottesville, Va. community are singing her praises too. Yesterday, she appeared on WCAV-CBS 19 discussing the benefits of blogging for nonprofits seeking to increase thier “Googlejuice.” Read on for more detail or to watch the online video … her points are well-taken regardless of your tax exempt status.

Standing Partnership staffers dressed in their best for The Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis Annual Charitable Fund Dinner and Gala at The Ritz Carlton on November 28. The first Jack Buck Media Person of the Year award was presented to Joe Buck. This “natural choice” made for a hilarious 2-hour roast.

• Viewer-generated video is fueling music videos today (from rock to country to hip hop).

• The music video for Soulja Boy’s now infamous “Crank That” made its debut online – the viewer-generated video was a hit online that eventually translated to traditional radio and billboard charts. As of publishing this post, the video on YouTube has 22,888,290 hits.

• The band Nickelback is using imitation viewer-generated video for their latest hit, Rockstar (meaning they produced the video to appear as though it is composed of viewer-generate content).

• What does this mean for the public relations industry? It might be a stretch to say this, but in measuring the reaction of our clients’ target audiences, we will have to also gauge audience responses in the new media realm.

Last night I attended the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce’s 94th Annual Dinner and Meeting. The keynote speaker was Paul Speranza, Jr., chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and vice chairman, general counsel and secretary of Wegman’s Food Markets.

Wegman’s ranked number two on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2006. They were number one in the large companies category and have ranked in the top three for the past three years.

Speranza talked about his involvement with the U.S. Chamber, about his impressions on his first visit to Charlottesville, about successful programs that help keep Wegman’s employees happy and healthy, but his main message focused on his belief in the “power of one.”

Each one of us has the power to make a difference, he said. Everyone has the ability to come forward and say, I’d like to help; what can I do? And when one person steps forward and begins to give back, to create change for the better, inspiration occurs, and others follow.

There were 450 “ones” in the audience. As I looked around the room I saw many faces I recognized; people I connect with not only local businesses, but local causes. I was surrounded with people who use their “power of one” every day, working for the local economy, caring for our people, educating our students and providing services valuable to businesses and individuals.

It made me very proud to be one of the people that represent this great community.

I spent part of the weekend unsubscribing from all of my e-mail lists. It’s a bold stand, but I’m interested in protecting the sanctity of my inbox. Ideally, all that will reach me via e-mail will be messages from clients, contacts, family and friends and contain information that I need right then and there.

Bill Gates has called e-mail an “interruption technology.” As annoying as telemarkers used to be in the pre-Do Not Call registry era, e-mail notifications distract, consume time better used elsewhere, and clog up my system, making it more difficult to see and find e-mails that are important, and that I really want to read.

In fact, I do want some notifications. I want to know when some sales are, when certain products are available, when events will occur and when the latest pharmaceutical will change my life (OK, I’m kidding about that last one.) So e-mail marketers and webmasters be warned: I’m going all RSS. If you’re not delivering your information so that I can subscribe to it using my RSS feed reader then guess what? I’ve decided to live without it.

My daily routine includes opening my feed reader and reading content sorted by topic, by client or by community group. I read it when I’m ready to absorb the information and keep what’s of interest to me, quickly dispensing with the rest.  In truth, the vast number of e-mails (including e-newsletters) I’ve gotten over the last several years, go largely unread. Why? Because when I get them, I’m doing something else. I file them away with the intent of reading them later and somehow, never get back there. A site with an RSS feed provides all the information I need and want, though. I can subscribe to the feed and if I want to find an article or post from an earlier edition, it’s easy to go to the site, search and find the archived information or additional information I seek. It’s convenient and there when I want it.

To the retailers, organizations, groups, publishers of e-newsletters and others who have been e-mailing me regularly for many a year, goodbye for now, and let me know (using searchable content) when you start offering RSS feeds and I’ll be right there to subscribe.

Still undecided about launching a corporate blog? Still struggling with gaining interest in your news from business journalists? Consider this:

More than 8 of 10 business journalists (84%) say they have used or would use blogs as primary or secondary sources for articles, according to the a new study by marketing consultancy Arketi.

Not only is this one of the funniest TV sitcom moments ever, it’s also a great reminder that when you plan a special event, make sure you cover all the details. Enjoy & Happy Thanksgiving!

In this season of Thanksgiving, as we all gather together to give thanks for our many blessings, may I suggest that the professions of public relations and journalism put aside the most ridiculous, time-wasting fight since the Anna Nicole Smith baby-daddy smackdown and just (gasp - dare I say it?!) work together?

If you’re unaware, here’s the basic conflict in a nutshell:

• Apparently, PR people so annoy journalists with our asinine press releases, worthless emails and phone calls, and basic lack of understanding of their profession and their publications/outlets, that they would like to see the PR industry as a whole go the way of the woolly mammoth.
• Conversely, journalists drive PR people to drink with their arrogance, unwavering determination to incorrectly report even the most basic facts about a company and/or story, and complete unwillingness to acknowledge and/or correct said mistakes, despite a PR pro’s best efforts to provide said journalists with the correct information.

Lately, this conflict has gotten increasingly ugly, between Wired’s editor-in-chief Chris Anderson publicly banning 300 PR pros from emailing him and Online Media Daily’s George Simpson saying that journalists think the PR industry, and I quote, “as a rule does not attract the best and the brightest, but rather the cutest and fastest-talking.” 

Rather than continuing down this path and taking Mr. Simpson’s bait, I will refrain from denigrating the profession of journalism and those who choose it for their career path. Here’s what I will say: are there some pathetically bad PR people out there who’ve completely earned the nickname “flack”? Yep. Likewise, are there some pathetically bad journalists out there who should make other competent journalists want to break their fingers and lock them in a closet? Oh, yeah.

Get my point? Last time I checked, people, we live in a democracy and run a capitalistic economy - therefore, let capitalism work. Journalists, if you come across bad PR people, simply refuse to work with them (as Chris Anderson has every right to do, but it would have been much more gracious and classy of him to do it privately). It’s up to you whether you take the time to tell them they suck, and why they suck, but just refuse to work with them. Let the competitive PR marketplace take it from there - and believe me, it will. However, do not write off the entire profession - continue working with the PR pros who do their jobs well (as you apparently do quite a bit, according to this study released by PRSA and cited by Mr. Simpson in his aforementioned article) and everyone’s a winner. 

And PR professionals? When you come across an unethical, ridiculously arrogant, or just plain bad journalist, stop trying to work with them. I know - I can hear you yelling at your computer, “We can’t! We have to get in xxx publication - our clients demand it!” That may have been true even a year ago, but I would argue it’s not so true anymore. There are an amazing array of ways to help your clients talk directly with the communities they want to reach, and traditional media isn’t necessarily the best way to do that anymore. It doesn’t do you or your clients any good to waste time and dollars going after attention from rude, unethical or untalented journalists. Again, let the market do its job and weed out those journalists/publications/outlets that aren’t producing quality work.

Additionally, if you haven’t had a frank discussion with your clients about the smartest ways to reach their audiences, go do that now. And if they still insist on being on the front page of the Wall Street Journal even though it absolutely makes no sense and won’t even really help their business all that much, rethink your relationship with that client.

Likewise, if you have strong contacts with good journalists, or you’d like to develop them, use some common sense. Do your homework, respect their time and deadlines, and give them what they need when they need it to do their jobs.

Thank you to all the journalists out there who are talented, ethical and respectful, as well as all the PR professionals who do their jobs with dignity, integrity and grace every day. Let’s work together, weed out the bad apples, get our jobs done well and get home to count the blessings that really matter. 

The Ten Commandments were carved into a stone tablet, and now The New York Times, “Harry Potter” and other modern fare will be available in tablet form. Reading’s one big cycle, I guess. What I’m referring to is Kindle, Amazon’s bold foray into the world of electronic books and magazines. The product was announced on Monday.

According to Amazon, Kindle is a wireless, portable reading device that will provide instant access to more than 90,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers. I stare at a computer screen all day and am not sure if I’m ready for this, but the idea of being able to lug more than 200 books around with me (and at just over 10 ounces) is pretty appealing.

What do you think? Are you ready to turn the page (yes, a bad pun) on the traditional reading experience?

David Brooks is one of my favorite columnists.  In today’s article , he talks about the increasing fragmentation of our culture using music as the example.  He explains that cultural phenomenons like the Rolling Stones would not happen in today’s culture, where we each endorse our own individual styles of music.

 While reading this, it struck me why Hannah Montana has been the best-selling concert ticket this year.  My theory:  children are still looking for ways to belong and associate, unlike us adults who want to identify with increasingly narrow niches of likeminded people who live similar lives.

Those whose job it is to market to children surely have challenges to contend with like managing their reputation through lead poisoning scares or the childhood obesity epidemic.  However, unlike other marketers, they still have a fighting chance to experience success at a mass scale.  Kids today may be more discerning than prior generations, but they still will rally behind mega-hits like Hannah Montana or High School Musical.

Tags: Hannah Montana, High School Musical, David Brooks