The Intersection of Online and Offline

Todd Defren’s “PR Squared” post entitled “The Value of PR Agencies, Part II of ???” got me all in a lather - again and is largely a reason, why, after 13 years of being on the agency side of things, I packed in it an decided to go in house.  Recently, there have been a rash of postings from bloggers who openly question the value of public relations if you have a killer product.

And it went on…

Many of the blogosphere’s “luminaries,” or as Jason Falls puts it, guys who “blow smoke up each others’ asses,” got into the fray, including Robert Scoble, Michael Arrington and Steve Rubel.   These admittedly a-list bloggers have built followings that I am assuming have grown organically, thus reinforcing the notion that is you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door.  I have to admit my own ignorance of Messers Scoble, Arrington and Rubel’s professional provenance, but anyone who has toiled within the recesses of a large public relations firm can knock this one out of the park in about thirty seconds.  This is elitist, perhaps wishful thinking.

Here is a quote that I think sums up their point:

Scoble, Rubel and Arrington basically made the point that PR firms are unnecessary if you have a great product and are willing to spend a lot of time engaging in the blogosphere.”

Confession:  I am biased because I sold these services in for more than a decade, and it puts a real burr under my saddle when people wax poetic or romantic about the “next killer app” that will grow organically and not need good public relations strategy or tactical execution.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to justify my existence on this planet on a regular basis or listen to a client tell me a) he/she is cutting my budget, or b) that a good public relations plan is “unnecessary.”

After smiling politely I looked like the guy in the picture above.

But fear not,Todd jumps into the fray with not one but two good defenses of the public relations industry.  In this first post, Why Hire a PR Firm?, instead of laying things, out, he shows video of a client (and that’s who matters, by the way), detailing out why public relations is important:

Mike Volpe, VP Marketing HubSpot - Value of PR Firms

But as so many things do in the blogosphere, this one kept coming back like a bad meal, or one of the zombies in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

Then Todd came back with a wonderful, succinct response from yet another client about the value of public relations agencies:

Samantha Stone, VP Marketing, Dataupia - Value of a PR Firm

As usual, when others say it better than I can, I don’t have a lot to add, except a suggestion that anyone who thinks that a well-planned, intelligently executed public relations (or marketing public relations) plan is superfluous for a killer app, ask either:

1. someone who has worked in a public relations agency and see a client’s (or more likely, potential client’s) product die on the vine for lack of effective public relations; or
2. anyone out there who is sitting on the next Twitter who can’t get exposure.

‘Nuff said.

Mark

I’ve been reading a ton of tweets this weekend along the lines of “if you received a Facebook message from me about XYZ, please disregard it.”  There is a worm going around Facebook right now.  I don’t know why I keep thinking that anything is, but nothing is sacrosanct from malicious coders and spammers (bad week for Twitter too, because there appear to be a lot of scantily-clad women who are all following me from the same Web site).  These people are the bottom feeders of the Internet society.

Many of the Facebook developers are, ironically, at DEFCON, one of the largest and oldest hacker conventions, but they still issued this statement, buried in a bunch of other “we take our security seriously” mumbo-jumbo:

Even right now, as we’re preparing to leave for DEFCON, we spent most of last night working on a fix for a worm, which was targeting people on Facebook and placing messages on Walls urging users to view a video that pretends to be hosted on a Google or YouTube website. We’ve identified and blocked the ability to link to the malicious websites from anywhere on Facebook. Less than .002 percent of people on Facebook have been affected, all of whom we notified and suggested steps to remove the malware.”

OK.  So read up and be careful.  Or buy a Mac.

Mark

Sometimes, you run across things that are so good, you just HAVE to steal, er, “appropriate” them.  On Ike Pigott’s blog, Occam’s RazR,, Ike details his job search and how he detailed what his dream job is to a current employers (and when you see what’s below, you’ll understand at least one of the reasons why he got the job).

Ike writes:

When I was interviewing for my current job, I was asked why I wanted it.  True, everyone loves getting a paycheck (and some even love being employed.)  But my answer came back to the intersection of things I enjoyed.  I actually traced the following diagram on my desk for the interview committee:

Since I have the pleasure and honor of teaching at Georgetown (something that I return to tomorrow), inevitably, I end up giving career advice during the semester.  I am definitely adding this one to the curriculum, with Ike’s permission.  And here’s a final note from Ike’s post:

Have you ever mapped out your motivations in this way?  There might just be some fulfilling intersections that you’re missing because you haven’t tried overlapping…

“Mapping out your motivations.”  This is the sort of clear, concise, yet critical thinking that most employers look for.  Have you mapped out your motivations?

Nice work.

Mark

The PowerPoint presentation below (thanks, SlideShare) is due mainly for the attendees of Saturday’s Georgetown University Public Relations Boot Camp, but is worth a read if you are interested in learning more about the roots (dating back to the 1600’s!!) of the theory and practice of public relations.

Mark

I found this post trolling through some del.icio.us links, but Clickz’s Harry Gold has put together some really solid thinking on how to strategize and execute a good online media plan.  I spent enough years on the agency side to know that the process is fraught with peril.

On one side, unless you are very lucky, you will have a client who is pretty clueless about online media buying.  On the other side, you have salespeople who know that they have about a ten percent shot of getting your business, but still need to go through the motions of developing a media plan for their property — and convincing you that THEIRS is the ONLY site/network that could possibly deliver you and your client the ROI you are looking for (when quite often the “return” part of “return on investment” is not well understood by anyone in the process).  And then there are the endless return “check in” phone calls from the poor schlubs at the media properties that you know your client won’t buy.

I hated doing this, but Harry seems passionate about the planning process, which will lead to a better outcome:

Many times I see agencies large and small presenting the days, and even weeks, of planning and negotiating that went into creating a plan as a simple table of site names, impression levels, flight dates, high-level placement details, and creative specs and costs. The problem with this way of presenting a plan: it minimizes the effort that goes into producing an online plan (which is always underappreciated) and cheapens a process that I hold sacred.

Please read his post for the Full Monty, but here are some of the ideas that I like best:

• Strategy and tactics. Remind your client of your agreed approach to the planning process. It’s funny how often both agency- and client-side people lose sight of this.
• Target audience. Same deal as above — set the stage by reminding all the players who you’re going after in the plan.
• Audience research. Talk about all the research you did on your target audience’s online and offline behavior — anything that will impact your media planning process and choices.
• Metrics for success. This is the biggest item that’s rarely published in a media plan. It’s like the metrics and definition of success are an afterthought. A good interactive marketer embraces metrics by showing a sample report and agreeing on optimization and success factors. Of course, you can establish metric-based goals here as well.
• Possible performance and branding split. Some of your placements and campaign may be more for branding. Establish the branding metrics for those, and establish that some placements (that you’ll call out in the plan) can’t be viewed through the same lenses applied to the campaign’s performance portion (lead gen, sales, etc.).
• Integration. Show any linkages you created with the offline portions of integrated buys you did with the offline planning teams.
• Hero slide. This is where you show the client why they hired you. Did you get 40 percent of rate card on a site? Get $25,000 worth of value-added placements? Knock a competitor out of a prime slot? Bought something new and cool? This is where you call it out!
• Plan details. This is often in the addendum as it can be a lot of information. However, when you get questions on a particular placement or site, and you will, this is where you turn. I like to have my team show screen captures of the sections and positions we bought and sample ad units. We also include the site’s description and the justifications as to why we selected the site.

There is some really good thinking in this post.  Worth a read.

Mark