This is a post by PR columnist, Alison Kenney.
What is going on? When did P.R. start meaning “please refrain”?
I mean, I’m used to hearing grouchy editors rag on P.R. tactics during their keynote speeches. I smile politely and wait to hear their advice on how best to pitch them if I really want to get coverage for my clients.
But what used to be a low background din has become a maelstrom of ill-will towards the P.R. profession.
The latest influential personality to rant against P.R. people is Forrester’s Josh Bernoff, whose biggest beef is the unsolicited emails he receives
Yes, Bernoff could ignore or delete those emails, but most likely he’s bothered by their persistence and is trying to do something about it. Apparently, just unsubscribing doesn’t always cut it, and sometimes there is no unsubscribe feature (such as on a press release). Which led me to wonder how P.R. firms get around the CAN-SPAM act? (Bernoff counters via Twitter that “It’s not clear that PR emails are covered by FTC. Plus, their CAN SPAM enforcement is weak. This is an ethical issue, not legal.”)
It also led me to wonder why unsolicited email is so offensive from P.R. people. I receive hundreds of unsolicited emails too — from sales people at a range of different firms. But I don’t post rants on each individual sender the way these folks do:
So what do we do? Many folks chastise their comrades and take the “hey, we’re better than that” attitude. Some use it as a chance to kiss up to the cranky reporters with a “thanks for pointing that out.” PRSA tries to stay above the fray; it’s response to Josh Bernoff’s post “sounds like it was written by a P.R. professional” according to Bernoff (via Twitter).
What do you think? Is P.R. in need of some good P.R. for itself? If so, how is P.R. doing well and what are we doing right? Let’s start that conversation for a change.
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
Post by PR columnist, Alison Kenney
More than ever before, PR is being chartered with generating our own content and not just shaping media content. As Fleishman-Hillard SVP Brad Mays says, “You are the Media.” This emphasis on content has created a need for more content generators, and in some cases, the hiring of “corporate reporters.”
I asked Lindsay if this was indeed a hot trend. She says that although her firm hasn’t received searches that are specifically for corporate reporters, she has heard of many PR departments that are hiring writers and many of the communications directors searches she has going on are very focused on finding someone with strong content creation skills. HooJobs has had several content focused positions recently, including a content manager position.
Writing has always been a big part of the PR role and reporters have long been scaling the wall and joining the PR ranks. But I’m not talking about bringing journalistic skill sets to the PR field…I’m curious about whether the notion of hiring your own corporate reporter will take off.
I’ve found several interesting examples:
- Last Spring, Eloqua hired Jesse Noyes, a former reporter for the Boston Herald and Boston Business Journal, as a corporate reporter. Eloqua intends Noyes to create content that will inform, educate and entertain those in Eloqua’s market.
- The LA Kings made Rich Hammond, who has covered the Kings for the past decade and previously wrote for the Los Angeles Daily News, its in-house reporter, in order to, in his words, provide “better, more comprehensive Kings coverage than ever before.”
- In 2008, Miller Brewing Co. hired a corporate reporter, James Arndorfer, to write Brew Blog, which was intended to be less of a corporate blog and more of a news-oriented source of fresh content. Brew Blog shut down less than six months later, but not until Arndorfer famously (well, famously in the sense that it was reported in the Wall Street Journal) broke the news that Anheuser Busch would be announcing a new brew – before A-B or the trade press had a chance to report the story.
- Cisco retains an A-List stable of freelance writers, including Bill Bulkely, Elizabeth Corcoran, Jason Deign, John Dodge and Marc Gunther, to write and report for its news@cisco page.
- In addition to the value that journalists bring to the PR department, there are all sorts of implications and opportunities for missteps when hiring a corporate reporter. Exhibit A: Chevron hired a reporter to tell its side of a story on rain forest contamination and pre-empt an expose on 60 Minutes.
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
By guest PR columnist, Alison Kenney.
There have been quite a few blog posts with provocative headlines wondering if PR is dead.* While PR certainly hasn’t “died” it sure has changed. Led mostly by the advent of social media, an overhaul of traditional media and an overall democratizing of information, PR has evolved. But what exactly has it evolved into? Can we still call it PR?
The old notion that PR is responsible for putting spin on a story that appears in the media is certainly dead. That job is more accurately called “crisis communications” now. Also, the idea that PR is responsible for controlling a story is dead. As Hubspot’s Brian Halligan pointed out last year, journalists have faster and easier ways to get information besides going through a PR person and the “public” no longer consists of just a handful of important media outlets (now, we have a broad spectrum of audiences and channels that need to be managed).
I think it’s interesting to see how PR is perceived in other places of the world, too. As Janette van Kalkeren writes on the PR Conversations blog, public relations as it’s practiced in Europe has origins in wartime propaganda, which led to a media-focused approach.
“However, the negative connotations from this heritage of propaganda led to different ways of representing public relations. For example, in the Netherlands it is often called ‘communicatie’ (communication); in Finland it goes under three different names: ‘ytheystoiminta’ (affiliation work), ‘viestintä’ (communication) and ‘sudetoiminta’ (relationship activity). In most European countries, the term ‘public relations’ is rarely used, making it hard to define the practice across the entire continent.”
So what does it mean to “do PR” now?
Yes, social media is a big part of our reality but it certainly isn’t a PR killer – it’s simply a new way of doing what we’ve done for years with traditional media targets: identifying audiences and influencers, engaging with them, and giving them reasons to continue engaging (or following or liking or whatever) with us. It also isn’t a replacement for traditional media – rather, the two can and should work together. PR professionals are also involved with online communities, although the job of managing a community is typically a separate duty.
PR professionals have always had a role in forming strategy, part of which entails listening and monitoring industry buzz, competitive news and customer feedback. Although we’ve always had tools and services to help gather and analyze the buzz, today’s tools are much more complex and capable and we’re more likely to hire a PR team member who can be dedicated to this job, especially if we are in a large organization.
Content creation is also a major responsibility for the PR professional and I will argue that telling your story has never been more important than it is today and there have never been so many mediums available for telling it. As an example, Eloqua, a forward-thinking marketing automation solutions provider, just hired a corporate reporter.
What do you think? Is Public Relations the right name for what we’re doing today?
*Blog posts about the health of PR:
Brian Halligan’s post on HubSpot Is PR Dead?
Norman Birnbach on Six Reasons PR is Not Dead Yet
3Point Communications’ blog post: 10 Public Relations-related Discussions I Could Live Without
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This is a post by guest columnist, Alison Kenney.
I’ve blogged before about how content is king and I really believe this will become a major issue for marketers and PR pros in the future. The ability to create fresh, distributable content will soon become core to PR and communication plans.
To illustrate my point: Forrester Research recently announced that, while global adoption of social networking is still on the rise, content creation “experienced no substantial growth in the past year.” This “lack of growth in social creation translates into a lack of fresh ideas, content, and perspectives,” said Forrester Research Consumer Insights Analyst Jacqueline Anderson. “For example, one-third of online consumers in the US regularly watch user-generated videos on sites like YouTube. But, only 10 percent of US online consumers upload videos they’ve created to public sites. The traits required to create social content are unique, and at this moment, the consumer market interested in these behaviors has plateaued.”
While more and more people will be accessing social media to reach new content, fewer and fewer people will be creating that content, and thereby demand for social media content will increase.
This is a golden opportunity for PR professionals who are trained in promoting new ideas, changing the conversation, establishing brands, driving authenticity and attracting attention.
Are you fired up yet?
If so, visit these sites for more tips on creating content for social media:
HubSpot’s Blog Better with an Editorial Calendar and Style Bank
Social Media Today’s 40 Useful Things You Can Share on Twitter Besides Blog Posts
Ann Wylie’s Tipsheets on Writing, Communication
Blue Pencil Consulting’s Fight Writer’s Block with Talk
CopyBlogger’s Writing for the Social Media Everyman
Social Media Examiner’s 9 Ways to Use Social Media to Inspire Your Writing
USA Today There’s an Art to Writing on Facebook or Twitter – Really
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This is a post by guest columnist, Alison Kenney.
We could talk for hours about the effect the Internet has had on public relations (how it has altered our media targets, changed our communication channels and the frequency of our communications, distorted our perception of what constitutes news, etc.), but one area that has been impacted greatly but hasn’t been talked about as much is the art of headline writing. Yes, PR pros write a lot of headlines — from the obvious, like press release headlines, to the more subtle, but equally important, like email subject lines. Blog posts, bylined articles, pitch letters, marketing brochures, tradeshow booth signs and even 140 character “headlines” on Twitter are also a big part of our work.
One major way the Internet has affected headline writing is with search engine optimization (SEO). Using the right keywords in a headline will make that piece easier for search engines to find, thus giving it more visibility on the web. But how do we balance the need to attract search engines with the need to attract human readers? CopyBlogger offers some great advice on using specific, niche keywords to attract both in this post in its Magnetic Headlines blog series.
Speaking of keywords, my friend Norman Birnbach thinks the use of the word ‘kill’ by copywriters over at Newsweek is, ahem, overkill in recent headlines.
As someone who has worked primarily in B2B public relations, where the emphasis in headline writing is on being factual and concise, I’ve struggled with writing more creative and attention-grabbing headlines. What worked for one audience, say a B2B technology firm, won’t fly with a different audience in the consumer retail industry. It’s important to know your audience before trying to write your headline.
Whatever audience you’re writing for, your headline should make an intriguing promise but also be credible so that readers will want to read more. For example, shifting a question that is important to your audience (“How do I write a good headline?”), into a strong statement (“How to write effective headlines”) will offer readers an intriguing reason to read the rest of the article. Adding more specific information (“Five Easy Changes to Make Your Headlines More Attractive to Customers”) gives the reader more information about what will be revealed in the rest of the text to know whether they want to continue reading.
Another tip from CopyBlogger is to study headlines that have been proven to work and to learn how they work. Brian Clark wrote on CopyBlogger that “if you understand how headlines work, you don’t need to try to write a homerun headline for every blog post. But you will end up writing snappier headlines off the top of your head, even for the more day-to-day mundane posts.”
Direct advertising headlines are great examples to learn from. They work if they get people to open their wallet and make a purchase. Along these lines, Dylan Boyd offers these guidelines for writing better email marketing subject lines:
- Don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with length and characters
- If you want to grow a mature email program, spend considerable time and energy testing a variety of offers
- Avoid using your sender name as a repetitive part of the subject line, and personalize only where it makes sense
Headline writing is an important part of business writing and critical to getting your full message across. What are your tips for writing eye-catching headlines?
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This is a guest post by PR Columnist, Alison Kenney.
Changes in the media landscape and the growth of social media have altered the role of PR. Now, to a greater extent than ever before, many PR pros are tasked with the responsibility of producing and managing content.
If this sounds like something you’re dealing with, here are four tips to make your role as content developer and curator easier:
Tip #1: Plan Ahead
PR pros are used to working with editorial calendars, the published calendars of scheduled editorial features at given media organizations, and there’s no reason we can’t create our own calendars for planning blog topics (and their contributors), scheduling tweets, and planning video. Start with a goal in mind: how often do you want to publish your content? Then, determine what you’ll have to do, and when it will need to be done, to achieve that goal. Next, fill in the deliverables with ideas for content…more on that below.
Tip #2: Look for inspiration
A common exercise at blogger gatherings is to undertake a 30-day (or 60- or 90-day) blogging challenge, where each blogger commits to writing something every day for that period. The goal of the exercise is to establish good, consistent habits to keep the content flowing. I’ve seen blogger challenges that ask each blogger to write about certain topics on each day of the challenge, i.e. on day #1 everyone writes about where they find inspiration.
Tip #3: Find new life for the content you’ve already got
Social Media consultant Mack Collier says that over time, many bloggers have learned how to either repurpose existing content, or to create new content that can be distributed via multiple social channels. Collier points out that content can come from repurposing white papers, PowerPoint presentations, and questions submitted by customers. New content can easily be created with folks you see everyday – think of video interviews with company execs and customers and recording the goings-on at industry events.
Tip #4: Change it up
Does your creativity dry right up at the thought of writing a compelling introduction, several supporting points and a thought-provoking summary? A blog post doesn’t have to be in essay form every time. HubSpot’s Beth Dunn suggests using a Style Bank to spur creative blog entries.
What are your tips for keeping the content flowing?
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This is a guest post by PR Columnist, Alison Kenney.
In last week’s season opener of the AMC series Mad Men, Peggy Olson tells Don Draper “we’re all here because of you.” The episode also shows Don’s struggle with revealing his personality – he blows a profile opportunity with AdAge before getting a second try at answering the question, “who is Don Draper?” with the Wall Street Journal. And, not only does Don shy away from revealing his personality to the public, he also tries to quaff his support staff’s attempts at defining the company (by disparaging Pete Campbell’s attempt to portray the agency as a scrappy start-up and by calling Peggy’s guerilla PR tactic a ‘shenanigan’).
Whether you work for a global PR firm, a boutique agency, your own solo practice or part of an in-house department, chances are you’ve come across PR ‘personalities.’
How important is it to have a recognizable personality behind your business?
First of all, having a recognizable personality behind your PR brand (recognizable in a good way, that is) can help attract business. Publicizing agency leadership is a form of in-bound marketing in that it helps prospective clients understand who they’ll be working with and what they’ll be buying before-hand. Anyone looking for a job will have heard how important it is to demonstrate their expertise through social media – by answering questions on LinkedIn, writing an original blog or posting comments to another widely-read blog, maintaining a web site and developing a following on Twitter. “Sharing your expertise publicly is a way of promoting yourself” tweeted Kellye Crane (@kellyecrane and @soloPR) when this topic came up on a recent #soloPR Twitter chat. “It’s also a way to practice what you preach and demonstrate that you know how to build an effective brand and reputation,” added another #soloPR chatter.
It can also help up-sell. The bigger the personality, the more valuable the counsel that person provides and the more you can charge for it. Anyone who has worked on the agency side of the PR business knows that the firm’s most senior leaders charge astronomically high billing rates when they are involved with client work.
Some clients and business partners are willing to pay higher rates for a big personality because they sense they’re getting more than just PR counsel for their dollars. I call it a rain-maker mentality — in which buyers think they’re also purchasing the services of someone who has valuable connections and is business savvy.
What do you think? Do you work with a PR personality? Do you cultivate your own professional personality?
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This is a guest post by Alison Kenney.
Working a part-time schedule is attractive for many reasons and PR is an industry that lends itself to flexible schedules. Or is it?
On the plus side:
Part-time can equate to freelance status in PR which can be more lucrative than salaried work – although non-salaried workers don’t receive benefits through their employer, they typically charge an hourly rate or project fee that equates to more money per hour than what their salaried counterparts earn. See my previous blog and the reader comments about tips for solo PR practitioners if you’re curious about how to make a freelance career work.
Working part-time can be a good way for older workers to ease out of demanding schedules and prepare for retirement — staying employed, even part-time, enables older workers to continue to accumulate savings (through income and employer contributions) and to postpone paying retirement expenses (like contributions to health insurance). A recent report from the Employment Benefit Research Institute says that part-time employment is a growing trend among older workers.
Some parts of PR work can be done anytime, anywhere – non-urgent PR work, such as building a media list or editorial calendar or writing executive bios or materials for a web site, don’t necessarily need to get done during certain hours of the day.
Technology makes it easy to stay connected and accessible – as long as you have access to the internet and a phone you can probably accomplish 90 percent of the PR work you need to do. Skype and other video conferencing tools have made it even easier and more acceptable for people to work remotely. Why is this important? First, more people working remotely blurs the lines around work schedules which makes working part-time more acceptable, i.e. it becomes lumped in with other flexible work arrangements. Second, it’s often assumed that if you work a part-time schedule you’ll be able to check in after-hours and be accessible if something urgent comes up and technology makes this possible.
On the negative side:
The opportunistic nature of PR makes it hard to predict that your job can be accomplished during a set time of day – many PR duties are deadline driven or arise suddenly – such as responding to a competitor’s news, handling communication during a crisis and responding to a reporter who is on deadline – and therefore require PR staff who are available around the clock, or at least during traditional office hours.
PR is a service-driven practice – PR is often perceived as a service business. If you work at an agency, you service external clients. Even if you work in-house you are servicing other functions of the company, such as supporting the sales team, collaborating with HR and furthering the executive management team’s agenda. Depending on their needs and expectations for your services, these clients may not want to accommodate your part-time schedule.
It can be difficult to land a part-time position – As Lindsay can attest, most career positions are not recruiting part-time candidates. I would hazard a guess that many part-time PR employees negotiated their hours after working full-time for that employer and building up a positive track record. That’s not to say that part-time jobs don’t exist or aren’t advertised – but they are outnumbered by full-time opportunities.
What do you think? Is PR the right field for workers who want part-time hours?
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This is a guest post by Alison Kenney.
I’ve heard Foursquare referred to as the hottest new marketing tool. But personally, I’m not a huge fan. In fact, according to this Fast Company article, I’m in the apathy stage. I just don’t feel the need to compete for badges and mayorships — and not enough contacts in my personal network use it to make it a useful communication tool. However, I am intrigued by its marketing and PR potential.
Here’s why Foursquare matters to marketers:
Your audience is game. This CNN story on Foursquare creator Dennis Crowley illustrates the appeal of Foursquare to a certain type of consumer — someone such as Crowley — who enjoys playing virtual contests, or someone who loves the challenge of new e-games. Foursquare can be a new way to connect with your target audience or even a way to reach a new audience.
Foursquare can reinforce your brand loyalty. Retailers like Starbucks and Dominos (in the UK) are testing Foursquare as a way to identify enthusiastic customers by rewarding them with coupons and discounts based on the number of times they “check in” using Foursquare.
Mobile and geo-location technologies are the future. According to Yankee Group president and author of the book, “Anywhere: How Global Connectivity Is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business.’’ Emily Nagle Green says that Google’s decision to put mobile first in their business is a telling indicator. Yahoo! also seems to be throwing its hat into the geo-location ring with its recent purchase of Kropol. A recent report from Juniperstates that all mobile location-based services may contribute a total revenue of $12.7 billion by 2014.
Location-based services are a natural fit for tourism and travel related brands. More than ever people are turning to the Web to plan their travel itineraries, find recommendations and map their trips. Foursquare can be a fun way to engage travelers and tourists during the process. The city of Chicago’s tourism office is encouraging people to recreate a scene from the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off using Foursquare. The state of Pennsylvania is leveraging social media to promote tourism too and has created special Foursquare badges just for Pennsylvania sites and uses Foursquare to provide tips for visiting Pennsylvania destinations.
Content generators now have another medium to reach their audience. The NY Times has aggregated its content for a new free iPhone app for visitors to Manhattan and Brooklyn and also offers integration with Foursquare for convenient check ins, i.e. convenient links to NY Times content.
Event marketers use Foursquare to drive participation. In addition to allowing users to know who is nearby or attending the same event, Foursquare can help event marketers increase participation. Last week fashion designer Cynthia Rowley launched the Cynthia Rowley Bridesmaids collection with the help of Foursquare and gave attendees at its launch unveiling a special gift if they checked in on Foursquare. (Visitors who check in at the store Lovely Bride during the week after the launch also receive 15% off their bridesmaid dress order.)
Whether Foursquare is here to stay, or not, smart marketers and PR pros are considering location-based social media as part of their integrated marketing plan. Are you?
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This is a post from PR columnist, Alison Kenney.
Congratulations! You made it and now you’re about to start a brand new job, your first real job in PR.
Here’s what you can expect:
What seems impossible at first becomes the norm: whether it’s learning to differentiate the editors of the Times and the Journal, understand the pet peeves of multiple managers or simply use the phone at your desk, there are a lot of new things to get used to. But I guarantee that you will learn the ropes, it just takes time.
You’ve left your comfort zone behind: good-bye roommates – perhaps you’re saying hello to some new ones? – and adios to campus life where you’re surrounded by hundreds of students whose lives are similar to yours. Now you’re working with people of all levels of experience and backgrounds (who all have something different to offer).
Your dream job may seem like a nightmare at times: that’s why they call it a job, not a hobby. Industry veteran Todd Defren offers this advice on the benefits of sticking with it in his Open Letter to Millennials.
You will meet the people who will influence the rest of your career: in every kind of way the people you meet at your first job – your direct supervisor, the president of the company and everyone else will have an impact on you.
It’s not over now that you’ve got the job; in fact, it’s just begun: you probably don’t need to wear your interview suit to work every day now, but that doesn’t mean no one is watching. Keep cultivating your personal brand and continuing your personal growth.
PR is a service-oriented vocation (yeah, like waitressing): in-house PR departments are often required to serve the needs of the CEO and executive team, the sales force and HR department; PR agency employees serve the needs of their clients. Often that means working with frequent interruptions and changing priorities. Public relations offices are busy places where schedules are continually rearrange to meet deadlines, attend meetings and travel.
School may be over, but you’ll learn a lot in the next year — Although your internship and courses will give you a great start, PR is definitely a learn-on-the-job career that can’t be taught in the classroom, You’re learning not just how to do the best PR you can but also the ins and outs of the industry you serve. Whether you’re learning to write for new medium, messages and levels of urgency or brainstorming new pitch ideas, each day in PR brings new challenges and lessons.
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. Learn more her here.
This blog is to share my recruiting experiences and discuss thoughts on the job market, PR industry and technology.
Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.
