Now that the BP oil leak has been stopped –or so we hear today – has anyone considered that it may be time to create some good juju for PR, after what BP has successfully done in maiming the industry?

Many of us PR and non PR types have railed against the dark stain that BP’s oil spill is leaving. I have tremendous respect for those who handle corporate PR whether they are consultants or internal PR folk. It’s a tough job getting the organization to say it as it is, and to stop publishing mindless statements just for the sound-byte effect.

So I was hoping to see a coalition of PR agencies coming together, perhaps under the umbrella of PRSA, and the CIPR (British PR association), to bring in some of the largest booms (thought leaders) and heavy equipment (smart technologies) to stop polluting our pristine beaches (er, reputation).

PRSA’s mantra is “Advancing the Profession and the Professional.” Looks like the industry has been mugged by flaks who are effectively planting land mines along this path. Search for BP at PRSA’s web site and you see articles such as “Can the BP brand survive Tony Hayward?” I was hoping to see some folks come out say why “BP’s PR has been toxic for their business.”

Meanwhile BP continues to write about its wonderful response about how it is “Flying higher to get closer to spill response,” and its sea bird rescues. And nobody in the PR industry seems to mind. ]]> http://www.valleyprblog.com/uncategorized/could-pr-industry-do-some-crisis-pr-in-post-bp-mess/feed/ 1 http://www.valleyprblog.com/hype/sheriff-joes-press-conference/ http://www.valleyprblog.com/hype/sheriff-joes-press-conference/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 17:04:51 +0000 Angelo Fernando http://www.valleyprblog.com/?p=4429 I like to know who attended Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s press conference. I always thought a press conference was called when you had something of value to offer to the media.

So when I received a text alert yesterday to say that Arpaio won’t run for governor, I was tempted to wonder what other bits of non-news might get the media to come over with cameras and notepads. My list:

• Mayor Phil Gordon announces that Shakira and he would not be considering taking part in an upcoming Dancing with the Stars.
• Governor Jan Brewer calls for an urgent press conference about how she and former Governor will no longer be Facebook friends

(Can you think of a few more? Do submit!)

The point being, are press conferences still the way to get on the agenda, and  enter the news cycle?

I like to know who attended Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s press conference. I always thought a press conference was called when you had something of value to offer to the media.

So when I received a text alert yesterday to say that Arpaio won’t run for governor, I was tempted to wonder what other bits of non-news might get the media to come over with cameras and notepads. My list:

• Mayor Phil Gordon announces that Shakira and he would not be considering taking part in an upcoming Dancing with the Stars.
• Governor Jan Brewer calls for an urgent press conference about how she and former Governor will no longer be Facebook friends

(Can you think of a few more? Do submit!)

The point being, are press conferences still the way to get on the agenda, and  enter the news cycle?

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Without getting into the politics of it, I like to hear what this community thinks of the bad mojo that we seem to attract. Stephen Colbert’s rant the other day (“Word of the day: ‘No Problemo‘) was probably the worst thing I’ve heard in a long time. Bill Goodykoontz was right when he said you know you’ve made the big time when you become the punch line in ‘The Colbert Report.’

People like John McCain should get on to shows like this try to ratchet things down. He’s got the knack of delivering better punch lines –like this one about ‘intentional accidents!‘

But I’ve seen signs that some are fighting back. Like this one about a Kalamazoo, Michigan towing company suing a student.

Maybe they have good reason, maybe they have terrific lawyers on retainer, maybe they believe that doing nothing only opens the door to more people thinking that a reckless tweet would bring them to their knees.

If you work for an agency, what do you advice your clients in dealing with displeased, angry customers who could rustle up a few thousand followers/fans in a few hours?

I’ll leave it to the community here to comment on the specifics of this attempt to comeback. I’m not a great fan of video and ‘ads’  as a means of working out a credibility issue.  Face to camera, a remorseful look etc may be great when a CEO or leader  is forced to answer to people, and address questions he/she had dodged.

But when it’s followed by a swoosh, what does that say about the sincerity of the exercise? The cynical part of me says, so what? It’s risky. But it’s not as risky as what got him into this spot in the first place.

It’s a great idea –albeit an homage to HARO — attempting to connect the PR community with employers. The folks behind it have planned a one-day event coming up on Feb 19.  Details here.

Maybe someone from Phoenix should get in touch with them, since they only have representation in Atlanta, Boston, NY, Washington (DC), Kansas City, Minneapolis, Toronto, Ohio, Dallas,  and Southern California.

Oh, and they are looking for an idea for a logo. If you’re up to it, help the HAPPO out, will you?

It had nothing to do with these two familiar faces. Most of the 400 + attendees at the Social Media for Business event –a..k.a SMAZ –about all things digital, indulged in one of the oldest communication tools, business cards.

I loved how, despite seeing a Twitter handle on the last statutory slide of every preso, this tiny cardboard rectangle still works. It probably illustrates how social practices like this will not go away despite the attention we give to trackbacks, Tweetdeck or Posterous.

In between working the floors wearing that funny hat, I sat in on some great sessions. The panel on Building Brand Evangelists with Social Media, moderated by Kevin Gawthrope (@gawthrok), was very enlightening.

Then there was our very own Linda Vandrede moderating Social Media 101 a panel that included Amanda Vega, Chris Hewitt, Scott Andrew and Sheila Kloefkorn. Talk about heavyweights! If you’d been to last year’s SMAZ, you would have notices how the audience had changed, even at a 101 level. One of the sticky topics that came up was about outsourcing content. There were two schools of thought here, but both maintained that content creators have to be transparent and committed. Blogola and astroturfing won’t cut it.

As I mentioned on my blog, the tone was set by Sitewire president, Greg (“I am not a social media expert”) Chapman but having said that, there was plenty to glean from. Especially in the hallways!

My takeaways:

• Be the message, don’t just post the message!
• Don’t treat Facebook like the Yellow Pages.
• Listen first, tweet, post later. Use Social Media as a listening post.
• Be cognizant of the ‘channel agnostic customer.’
• Google handles hyphens better than underscores, so be watchful when you write headlines, tags.
• “Social media is free” is a huge misconception. There’s a human resource cost attached to it.
• Social media is not a strategy – it is what you embed into your Comms strategy, marketing strategy, PR strategy.
• Google’s new search engine, Caffeine, will knock your socks off.
• Think less about the platform, more about the content.
• Content isn’t king. Optimized content is king!
• Start with small things. If your boss or client wants to start tweeting, facebooking, start with small goals before the big-hairy-audacious ones
• There’s a difference between a News Feed and a Live Feed on Facebook.
• Train others freely. Give away secrets. The rising tide lifts all boats.
• Differentiate between Goals and Tactics. People mix these up.
• Just like the way they confuse Strategies and Tactics, I suppose.

If you read other takes on SMAZ , you’ll see that there’s a lot of tech stuff to wrap your head around. But for all the talk about ‘matchbacks’ and Seesmic, Tweetie and Flowtown, I came away with three things:

• “Social Media is an ingredient, not an entre.” – Jason Baer
• “Hang out where your customers hang out” – Sheila Kloefkorn

And …

• Bring a lot of business cards, next time, dammit!

Magazines know this so well, that people ought not be shocked at these choices. A photo by itself is not so powerful unless the accompanying headline draws it out. In this case, alluding to The Sound of Music, brings up rich images of controversy:  a flibbertijibbet, a will-o’-the wisp,  a clown!

Of course the running shorts is aimed at raising hackles, because it is so inappropriate. Running? Or is it a nod to the not-so-hidden agenda of Ms. Palin’s future run? As columnist Susan Estrich notes (by the way the original headline in the article, See Sarah Run, is more apt than the one the subs created in the Arizona Republic) the unlikeliest people will come to her defense. Newsweek, which has nicely seeded that controversy, will benefit from this ‘mistake.’

Maybe it learned from some real mistakes in the past, running such boring covers, and trying to use that word Palin-tology. Newsweek’s editor’s defense, covers the expected points: “We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard.”

Palin shot back, and was well situated to do so, on her book tour. With the social media side as well, in a statement on Facebook that garnered 3,176 comments. I don’t think even Newsweek gets so many comments.

The perfect moonbeam in their ink-stained hands.

• Do journalists need PR – by Jeremy Porter
• And to get the opposite pov, read What journalists should know about PR people – by Rohit Bahargava

So I thought these two examples were enlightening. One a government institution, and the other a big brand.

Exhibit One: “TSA Agents took my son.”

A woman going through an airport complained that she had been ’separated’ from her child at a security checkpoint. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) must face hundreds of complaints like this, from people losing their whatevers, to the indignity of being patted down.

So I thought this use of video in their blog  to quickly respond to the lady’s complaint, was a perfect way to diffuse the situation. In fact they posted nine videos to support their response -and these were also posted to YouTube.

Exhibit 2: “Yahoo hired lap dancers!”

Nothing is more toxic to a brand than a story that involves sex being used to motivate or influence others. That’s what happened to Yahoo this week. I don’t think the story got much play here (read about it here).

Without attempting to dance around the facts, Chris Yeh, the head of the group addressed it head on in their developer blog, saying: “I wanted to acknowledge the public reaction generated by the images of female dancers at our Taiwan Open Hack Day this past weekend.”

If you Google Yahoo (or Yahoo them for that matter) you’ll see that most of it is about the apology, not the dumb move. (And in case your mind is going in this direction no,they didn’t post videos in this case!)