Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category
Monday, August 8th, 2011
Jottings by a tech PR consultant on a tireless quest for the next best tool, application, widget or Website to help “balance” life between the cyber and real worlds.
I wish I could say my favorite tool of the day is a new discovery. One that will bring you great fame and fortune. I would love nothing better than to promise you a shiny new social media toy that will captivate you for the next few weeks or even months (if your attention span is a little longer than the norm).
But no … If I’m completely honest (and I always am). 
It’s without a doubt, something you’ve been hearing about ad nauseam: Twitter.
I have to admit, I didn’t get the Twitter thing at first. In fact, I sat on my new Twitter account for a good seven months while I “played” with Facebook and LinkedIn. I signed up for Twitter more than three years ago on June 9, 2008, but my first Tweet wasn’t until January 26, 2009. I can assure you that I wasn’t going to tell anybody what I had for lunch or about my latest mundane thought. To the uninitiated, it sometimes seems that is all people talk about on Twitter.
As a PR practitioner, I was feeling growing pressure to get with the Twitter program. The catalyst for me was when one of my enterprise software clients was ready to launch a new Website alerting people to breaking news and commentary on cybercrime. It wasn’t long after that when I began to see how useful it was to my other enterprise clients who were releasing industry trend predictions and writing by-lined articles for the niche trade press. (more…)
Tags: Social Media, Twitter
Posted in My Favorite Tools, News, Public Relations, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
“In the past three years, state agencies have spent more than $20 million in taxpayer money on outside advertising, public relations and media campaigns,” writes Gregory B. Hladky of the Hartford Advocate (May 17).
A policy advisor for Connecticut Governor Dannell Malloy is quoted in Hladky’s article “Is The State Spending Too Much Money On PR?“ as saying that when the new administration took office in January they were surprised to find how much money was being spent on outside PR consultants. [Note that the $20 million under scrutiny here is in addition to PR staff already on state payroll.]
Personally as a California resident, I’m relieved that this week’s revelations about Arnold Schwarzenegger having fathered an illegitimate child 10 years ago broke after he left office. Imagine the PR tab California would have to bear to address this latest scandal!
Tags: Dannell Malloy, Hartford Advocate, Is the State Spending Too Much Money on PR?, Public Relations
Posted in News, Public Relations | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
With the US Justice Department’s criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs underway (in addition to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil fraud suit) the once venerable investment banking firm faces a delicate tightrope walk over what it can say publicy in its defense.
Legal counsel has contributed to a public relations failure if you ask Sanford C. Bernstein & Co analyst Brad Hintz. He told The Washington Post on May 16 that when you ask a major law firm what to do when you are under oath you are told to keep the answers very short, don’t offer new information. “If you do that when you are on television you sound very wooden and you come across as if you’re dodging and weaving and that is where Goldman has lost in terms of public relations,” he concluded.
Tags: Brad Hintz, Brad Hintz Says Goldman Sachs `Failed' Public Relations, Goldman Sachs, The Washington Post
Posted in Public Relations | No Comments »
Friday, January 14th, 2011
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When an embargo on a social media news announcement was breached in November, a prominent tech journalist sent out a sarcasm-laced tweet: “Shocking!”
This was just one of many broken embargoes in the tech industry last year. I recall one particularly memorable breach (and tweet) that lit up the Twitter transom in August after eWeek broke Google’s embargo on Gmail Priority Inbox. By some accounts, there were more breaches in 2010 than ever before – some were accidental, and some were not.
So why bother with embargoes?
Embargoes can be useful. As a PR practitioner, I pre-brief journalists under embargo only when I believe my client has particularly newsworthy corporate and product announcements. This approach has always seemed like a win-win situation for major stories. Embargoes often result in quality coverage for companies, and on the flipside embargoes give reporters time to research and write their stories before the press release hits the wire.
As we all know in the PR business, once the press release is out, the news is about as inviting as a waft of Limburger cheese. Many reporters appreciate the time the embargo buys them. Sure the investigative news journalists and bloggers bristle at the thought of anyone controlling the release of news, but most agree to honor the embargo because they know they wouldn’t have the story otherwise. (more…)
Tags: Boston University: College of Communication, News embargo, Northwestern University: Medhill School of Journalism, PR, Public Relations, The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Posted in Media Policy, Public Relations | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
I want an exclusive, baby!
“Giving exclusives still can serve an important function in today’s viral media world, and even may be worth making a few enemies,” asserts Dan Primack in an article entitled How and when to give a media ‘exclusive,’ which arrived in this morning’s issue of The Term Sheet, Fortune.com’s new daily email about deals and deal-makers. Primack was revisiting what he described as a “fairly contentious” New England Venture Network (NEVN)-sponsored panel discussion last week with Paul Gillin over the practice of companies giving “exclusives” to select media outlets.
Gillin felt so strongly that such favoritism has no place in “the relationship game” of PR that the day after the panel discussion he blogged Are Exclusives a Good Idea? In a Word: No. Gillin’s rationale is that ”exclusives make one friend at the expense of making a lot of enemies.” He noted that journalists “tend to hold grudges against sources who favor their competition.” Nonetheless, he admitted that in “isolated” situations when a company has the chance to be covered by a big-name publication like The New York Times, it may be worth losing some friends for a scoop. (more…)
Tags: Dan Primack, eWeek, Google Priority Inbox, Jason Kincaid, Media, media exclusive, News embargo, Paul Gillin, Press release, TechCrunch, Twitter
Posted in Media Policy, Public Relations | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
I’ve often thought about how social media is blurring the lines between public relations and customer service. Everyone with a laptop or online device now has a powerful publishing platform at their fingertips. (more…)
Tags: Kimpton Hotels, McDonald's, PRWeek, Quicken Loans, Social Media, Waggener Edstrom's WE Studio D's
Posted in Conferences & Webinars, Most Popular, News, Public Relations, Social Media | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Not everyone takes PR 101 or Journalism 101 in college and perhaps for that reason there is often confusion in the PR profession and even journalism circles about what terms like “Exclusive” and “Deep Background” mean. Add bloggers into the mix, and “On the Record,” “On Background,” “On Deep Background” and “Off the Record” are open to interpretation. (more…)
Tags: Background, Deep Background, Exclusive, No Comment, Not for Attribution, Off the Record
Posted in Media Policy, Most Popular, Public Relations | No Comments »
Monday, July 6th, 2009
I read a couple of articles today about cloud computing outages (penned
by Carl Brooks of SearchCloudComputing.com), and I was struck by the different approaches that Amazon and Rackspace chose in their handling of customer notifications when their cloud computing services went down. With viral social media at the tips of every customer’s fingertips, rapid customer response, or lack there of, will invariably have ramifications for PR.
When one of Amazon’s data centers was hit by lightening, disrupting services for five hours last week, one customer reportedly grumbled that “he always felt left in the dark when outages occur.” An Amazon Web Services spokesperson pointed out in the article that AWS runs a status update page, but must be mindful of exposing vulnerabilities in its infrastructure that could lead to security risks. Still, for the most part AWS’ customers took it all in stride, recognizing that some of the inconvenience is attributable to their own configurations or cost-cutting measures that affect service levels.
When Rackspace’s hosted services recently went down for about 48 minutes, Rackspace turned to Twitter to update its customers (and by the nature of this medium the greater public). Brooks wrote: “Rackspace has possibly set a new record for transparency and accountability, if not customer satisfaction, by tirelessly tweeting the entire episode.” On the flipside, however, at press time the reporter was still awaiting a reply to his request for a comment from Rackspace.
As cloud computing grows in popularity with the promise of cost-effective and secure data storage and virtualized enterprise-class infrastructure, each service provider’s responsibility for an effective crisis or incident communications strategy will grow exponentially. The way that each publicly handles service interuptions or security breaches reflects on the reputation and viability of the cloud computing industry as a whole. This year to date, high profile hosting services such as Google, Salesforce and Microsoft’s cloud development platform have seen their blackouts cataloged by the media.
Tags: Cloud Computing, MarketingProf
Posted in Public Relations | 1 Comment »
Friday, August 26th, 2005
“Benefits over features” — it has become the mantra in marketing writing circles, but as Mike O’Sullivan points out in his excellent article in MarketingProfs.com:
“With all the focus on ‘benefits,’ it’s easy to forget that benefits
don’t work in a vacuum. Whenever you write copy, there’s more you must always keep in mind.”
You will need to subscribe to MarketingProfs (it’s free) to find out just what Mike says you will need to keep in mind. Trust me it’s worth it. Mike shares some great insights that all of us — no matter how long in the game — can learn from.
Just so you know, Mike O’Sullivan is an independent marketing writer, and a JAG Wire Group consultant. His Web site is http://www.mikeos.com/.
Tags: Marketing, writing
Posted in Public Relations | No Comments »
Saturday, July 23rd, 2005
Is it possible to write a press release in 15 minutes? That’s what the
marketing chief at my first PR job seemed to think when he told me to
run along and write up the first draft of a partner announcement he had
just briefed me on.
Surely it’s possible, but how effective is that press release going to be? In addition to technique, a press release requires research. No matter how much research the marketing department may have done, there’s always a need for market context around specific announcements.
Each release will have to stand up to intense scrutiny. In the tech world, the audience is well-informed, but they are busy. They won’t have time to extrapolate what “might” be relevant to them if it is not clearly spelled out.
Think about your news from their perspective. Whether they are journalists or industry analysts, they are writing or advising others of the latest trends and best buys, and they will sound the first siren if anything is wrong. What is the customer pain point and how does your product help?
Today’s Web access means that customers are as likely to see your press release as are the press who used to be the only point of access to the public (whether through PR, advertising or self-publishing). Anyone who has access to the Internet can receive press releases directly through RSS feeds and other channels.
A release should contribute to industry discussion. If it doesn’t offer something more than the company’s news, and speak directly to the intended audience — telling them why they should care — it probably won’t achieve its purpose.
To my former boss: “The 15 minute press release is a myth!”
Tags: Press Releases, technique, writing
Posted in Most Popular, Public Relations | No Comments »
Okay, So You’ll Only Talk “Off the Record”
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010Tags: Background, Deep Background, Exclusive, No Comment, Not for Attribution, Off the Record
Posted in Media Policy, Most Popular, Public Relations | No Comments »