I get to do fun stuff and my new favorite, shiny toy is the honor of doing For Immediate Release correspondent reports. Yesterday’s, (#509) which I teased out a bit on Monday, deals with:
How YouTube has made it ridiculously easy to add closed-captioning to videos (a Section 508 requirement under the law – we government weenies have to do this); and
A ForSee survey, ranking government Web sites and comparing a few of them to private sector sites.
All of this is more important than ever because, with the passage of new and potential legislation, we are looking at moving millions of citizens from private sector Web sites to government sites. And that means, as social media practitioners in government, we must build Web sites around the needs of users. Period. Full stop. No excuses.
Please listen to the whole FIR report, but if you are jones-ing to hear my nasal, pedantic voice, my contribution comes at around the 37:00 mark (lower-case “m”).
If you read this blog semi-regularly, you’ll note that I occasionally fill in for Chip Griffin as a co-host on Media Bullseye Radio Roundtable. It’s always fun and we always have a few laughs. And I always learn something.
With a guest who has forgotten more about podcasting that I will ever know, I have to admit that I was a little nervous. Have a listen and see if you think I pulled it off. And if the Roundtable folks had conducted random drug testing (read: Manny Ramirez) I would have been banned from the show because I managed to throw myself down a flight of stairs the day prior – and was in a slight percocet/flexoril/celebrex/neck brace haze.
Hope I did you guys proud, Jen and Chip. Or maybe I’m better when I’m higher than a kite? Jen Zingsheim sums things up much better than I can — her summary is below.
Mark
This week, Jen Zingsheim was joined by co-host extraordinaire Mark Story, and the very special guest was Neville Hobson, from the UK–of FIR podcast fame. The Roundtable discussed the recent results of a survey of FIR listeners, the World According to Mom blog-tag effort, and whether PR is suffering a slowdown borne of the recession, or if there are other reasons for budget declines.
First, the Roundtable spent quite a bit of time discussing the results of the FIR survey, calling out some noteable findings. Jen was surprised at the gender split (77 percent of FIR listeners are men), and Mark offered his thoughts as someone who took the survey. Neville provided a lot of insight as to why they collect this information–and why they make it publicly available.
Next, as Mother’s Day is this Sunday (still time to get flowers and a card, and don’t forget to call mom!) the group discussed Catherine Connors of Her Bad Mom, and the effort to “go around the world in 80 clicks.” This effort linking mom bloggers across the globe demonstrates the international power of community, and the ability to link to one another through a shared experience–motherhood–in addition to shared interests.
Finally, the group touched on an article that ran in the New York Times about PR facing a downturn during the recession. Is the recession really the reason for a decline in business, or is this a correction, and does it take into account the introduction of new tools, such as social media?
I consider myself fortunate because I get to learn a lot from some very smart people. I do social media in my day job, teach it at my night job, blog (duh) and get to so some freelance writing and podcast work on the side.
The best part? Just about every day, I learn something new.
I have to confess, however, that my daily reading does not include some of the real blogosphere luminaries (I promised, no more about Scoble). Aside from Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson (whom I consider A-Listers), my daily reading consists of some of whom I consider to be the “hidden gems” of the blogosphere. And that’s why I came up with the wacky idea (boldly stealing #followfriday) with #blogmonday.
My dream is that, through blogging about other bloggers, we all can increase the reach and scope of our own blogger networks, help promote some really smart people who just don’t have the high Technorati rankings (yet) as well as share our own online rolodexes of “must reads.”
So please, feel free to join me in promoting some of the smart people out there. And trust me; I plan to make this a weekly occurrence in the hopes that it takes off. If you’re not in this one, you will more than likely make it into another. So here are my entries for the inaugural #blogmonday.
Tried, True and Terrific
Occam Razr’s – Ike Piggot’s blog not only makes me think about more things that just social media, I learn something new every time I read it.
It’s Not a Lecture: David Wescott makes you think; and he developed (and executed) a brilliant idea on the “Global Moms” initiative. Plus. he’s smart as hell.
Katie Payne’s Measurement Blog. Katie literally wrote the book on public relations measurement and has helped me solve many an argument at work or consulting on the value of public relations. She figured out the answers before many of us came up with the questions.
Blogs That You Might Not Read – But Should
Shilpika Das’s “Wired Conversations.” Full disclosure: Shilpika is a former student of mine, but writes amazingingly insightful posts. She is smart, a great writer and someone who makes me think. The student has become the teacher in this case.
Matthew Chamberlin’s “Clearcast Digital Media.“ Matthew has been both a social media marketer and a video producer, so writes stuff that makes you think about the the differing aspects of social media converge.
Random Blog of the Week:
Over the Monster – As a die-hard Red Sox fan (and I died hard many times before the first Red Sox World Series Championship, like in 1975, 1976 (Bucky Effing Dent) and of course, the Bucker-led 1986 team). But if your are a Sox fan, add this to your blogroll.
Bonus Feature – Online Magazine and Podcast Series
That today’s inugural entry. While it’s not as easy as #followfriday, won’t you please consider a quick post giving props to those whom you think are deserving of it?
Roderick’s role is interesting. He spent nearly 25 years at the LA Times and now follows the paper, among other journalism-related activities on his blog. In a recent post, he cites Kinsey Lowe, former of the paper, as emailing:
Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but after nearly three decades I’m giving it up.
I support all your efforts but this latest affront is just too much to let it pass. Not the notion of selling advertising on Page 1, but the nature of the ad itself. What a desperately, astonishingly tired idea. It makes the Staples debacle look absolutely brilliant.
I’ve already strung along for far longer than was even convenient.
I still pay for the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, and maintain Variety and other paid online-only subscriptions.
I know this is a betrayal, and for that I’m sorry, but “they” won’t understand anything less.
There used to be a sort of truism about newspapers, that you could ruin a reputation overnight but it takes 10 years to build a new one.
So Georgetown students, here’s this week’s assignment. Listen to the entire podcast, and post your comment or question on our blog. And for that extra added element of intellectual curiosity, you may want to listen to the whole of Eric’s interview as well.
Posts are due no later than 5:00pm on Tuesday April 14th. Those panicking about not filing their tax returns may want to start this one early…
“PR is dead. The way that PR is practiced is just..lame.”
“Most of PR has ’sucked.’ If you think it’s not, just be a blogger for a little while. And watched the thousands of stupid-ass pitches flow through your screen.”
“Anybody who pitches you on email is stupid. The chance that I am going to listen to anyone who pitches me email on frikkin’ email is one percent.”
Well, many of us who practice public relations for a living took some serious offense to this. I wrote a first blog post, (Shut Up, Mr. Scoble) and then when he took on Alice Marshall of Presto Vivace, I penned another (”Put a “Cewebrity” in His Place – But You Can’t Fix Stupid“). I was pretty angry, as were the aforementioned Alice Marshall as well as the highly respected Robert French of Auburn University. Both pointed out that Mr. Scoble’s preferred method of being pitched, over dinner, reeked of, as Professor French put it “Wine Me & Dine Me (or, I’ll whine about bad PR).”
But enough of my rancor. More reasoned, respected people like Jason Falls and David Wescott had some good points as well.
Jason commented on my blog:
“Robert is guilty of one thing – generalizing. Does he get a lot of bad pitches? Yep. So do I (probably not as many, I’m sure). Do a lot of PR folks suck these days? Yeah. Does the industry need a time out to revamp itself? Yes. But does someone like Scoble need to say, “PR SUCKS” as if all PR does? Hell no.”
Fair enough. David Wescott noted:
“I’m coming to realize there’s something worse than believing you’re a big deal by reading your press clippings – it’s believing you’re a big deal by looking at the number of followers you have on twitter. I’m not saying that’s where Scoble is, but comments like that don’t exactly convince me otherwise.”
A week into this, my thoughts have turned somewhat inward – meaning to those of us who do public relations and social media for a living and ask the “Scobelistic Question”: Do we suck?
Yes and no.
Aside from acting self-absorbed, Scoble whined about a mere sliver of public relations – pitching – and said that the whole industry is “lame.” And that comment is, well, lame. But more importantly, are there people who make bad pitches? Absolutely.
Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, both of whom I consider “A-Listers” and produce their excellent “For Immediate Release” podcast (and who first brought this topic to my attention), stated that they both get lots of bad pitches via email.
Time for a little self-examination.
I no longer work for a public relations agency, but was in the business for about 15 years and began, as most young bucks do – by pitching people who did not necessarily want to be pitched. And got hung up on a lot. So the other night in my class at Georgetown, I asked my students what was preventing them from creating the “magical experiences” that Scoble seems to demand with his free meals. What I heard back was pretty instructive – and confirmed, from my small focus group, what I had long believed prevents people from innovating more:
Billing pressure. When you work for an agency, your job is to bill as much as you can, and quite often, falling back on old ways is the best way to make your hours. Brutal, but I believe it to be true.
Clients are in love with statistics. Many clients would rather hear “we pitched 2,000 bloggers,” (spam, of course), than “we did our research, waited and make 10 carefully crafted pitches to 10 leading bloggers.” 2,000 versus 10? Please.
Clients or supervisors who don’t “get” social media are reluctant to green light innovation. The “young bucks” generation in public relations agencies have a hard time selling concepts that are new and people don’t yet understand.
The pressure. The higher you go in agencies, the more pressure you have to bill hours, supervise people, develop businesses and further existing client relationships. “Creating magic” takes some serious time – and thinking.
Bottom line? I think that Scoble is self-absorbed, but has clearly earned his media spotlight. And the public relations industry does indeed churn out some really bad pitches. But we don’t suck.
Is it worth painting the entire industry as “dead” and “lame?” Not unless you have no idea what you are talking about.
