Inside PR 2.58: PR movies and wiping the slate clean

• • PR

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Just before we recorded the show, I had lunch with Guy Skipworth, a friend, colleague and long-time listener.  He had an in-person comment for us: that we should talk about PR more…

Thanks Guy, good point.

So… in the spirit of the comment and the fact that summer movies are being released, we thought we’d look at a few films that depict PR.  And while most of them deal with stereotypes and preconceived notions, they shed light on why so many people have a negative perception about our profession.

Here’s the list:

  • Sweet Smell of Success – a brooding black and white drama about the darker side of PR with Tony Curtis as a sleazy press agent who will do anything to curry favour with a powerful columnist.
  • Days of Wine and Roses starring Jack Lemmon as a burnt out, former reporter and current alcoholic, whose job is less about messages and more about procuring women for corrupt businessmen. Billable hours anyone?
  • A more contemporary PR film is Wag the Dog, which features Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman.  The comedy revolves around a fabricated war that’s presented as a real event to take the heat off a president’s personal issue.
  • Other movies about PR include Thank You for Smoking and America’s Sweethearts.
  • Martin predicts the next big PR movie will be based on The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis.

What movies would you add? Please let us know.

In the second half of the podcast, we talk about Steve Rubel’s ‘scorched-earth’ approach to his blogs: he deleted all his content opting instead for a new online presence on Tumblr.

Gini starts by talking about the strong community she’s built at SpinSucks and why she wouldn’t want to leave it. She goes on to say that you can always recreate the content but not the community.

Joe advises everyone whose name is NOT Rubel – not to try this at home.  He feels Steve can do it because of his leadership position in PR and social media.

Martin asks about the notion of creation and the implications of deleting what is, in essence, a public record.

Joe says the nature of community is that we don’t own what we’ve created once it’s public-it belongs to the community. However, he also commends Steve Rubel and other thought-leaders who experiment and try the extraordinary.

Steve Rubel – do you have anything to add?  And, we’re interested to hear from all our listeners, too.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Posted written by Martin Waxman .

Inside PR 2.54: Live from Counselors Academy – talking about a PR imbroglio

• • PR

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We’re on the road and face to face at Counselors Academy’s annual conference for PR leaders, where we’ll be doing the next two shows.

Joe leads off this week’s discussion with: the Burson-Marsteller / Facebook imbroglio.

Gini recaps her blog post and sets the scene.  BM had been working with media and bloggers to create a whisper campaign against Google and its social media platform.  The PR firm did not disclose the client.  After much speculation, Facebook admitted they were behind the program. BM issued a statement saying the initiative contravened its policies but did not come out and apologize. PRSA was quoted in a story saying that since only 14 people in the agency are members, they’re the only ones who can be held responsible for the ethics breach.

The story reminds Martin of a classic ‘50s film, The Sweet Smell of Success, with Tony Curtis as a less than honest press agent who conducts a whisper campaign of his own.

Joe says this is a challenge any firm faces. The story affects all PR and communications employees as well as the image of PR as a whole. What he finds most disturbing about BM’s response, is that they use misdirection to colour the perception of who’s responsible for the information.

Tom Garrity discusses the issue of reporters who jump over to PR. He suggests this is a good reminder to re-analyse how we look at and respond to social media in the marketplace. He references a survey his firm conducted in New Mexico that ranks PR and journalist as the lowest trusted professions.

Johna Burke asks what this invokes for agency proprietors as we create partnerships with clients and knowingly or unknowingly get caught up in the 24/7 news cycle.  What can we do internally to resolve and manage situations like this?

Joe responds that an ethics code is not good enough. Ethics should be job one, the core of an agency’s culture, how we treat ourselves and how we treat the outside world.

Martin tries to look at it from the other side: how a call from a high profile client could colour a firm’s perceptions of the assignment, and that it’s important to hold onto your ethics and beliefs and not get caught with stars in your eyes.

Gini wonders when your defences come up and you realize something like this is a lot like Watergate.

Lisa Gerber references the point at which a crisis is inflamed or diffused and how a minority can make the majority look bad. She thinks PRSA should come out with a stronger stand and not simply focus on its members.

Gini would like to see our profession held accountable like other industries.  Martin talks about how an industry-wide code of ethics that all organizations could sign would help establish professional standards… then gets off his high horse.

And that’s where this week’s podcast ends. We’d love to hear your comments on our topic, or any questions you may have.

Please send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.51: Stepping up

• • PR

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This week we start with a listener comment – a tweet, really – from @autumnthompson who asks what a new person like her can do to further her career. In past episodes, we covered advice for students looking for their first job, but we haven’t discussed how to move ahead in your career. So thanks Autumn.

Joe starts by saying you’re never too young to stand out: be curious, listen, learn and talk about what you know and build your network. The people you meet at the beginning of your career are going to be with you throughout your work life. And always strive to do your best and be outstanding.

Gini adds that you should use social networks to get outside your four walls and find people to connect to inside and outside your agency and develop relationships.

Martin suggests you should begin those relationships early.  Just because you’re connecting with a potential employer doesn’t mean you’re looking for a job.  Martin also references an article by Susan Balcom Walton in the Spring edition of PRSA’s Strategist, entitled ‘Demonstrating value to boomer bosses: a memo to millenials’, that offers helpful advice on navigating the work force during the early part of one’s career (subscription required).

Martin asks Gini about her recent blog post on things organizations should consider when they’re entering the social arena. Gini says the post is based on a five-step process she and her team take clients through as they help develop a strategy.  They begin by listening, then assess where a company’s customers and prospects are. This is followed by engagement, measurement and refinement.

Joe suggests including two more items at the front end. He encourages businesses to start by asking: is there a business case; and does social media make sense within the corporate objectives? And then they need to look at the questions around governance.

Martin says companies should establish a social media policy for staff from the beginning, making sure people know and understand the parameters. Joe thinks social media policies should go beyond responding and should include privacy, security, intellectual property, accessibility, liability, data jurisdiction and communications/languages policy.  According to Gini, this really isn’t any different than an employee code of conduct for real-life events.

And that’s a wrap for this week.  Next week, it’s the first anniversary for Gini, Joe and Martin.  Any ideas on how we should celebrate?

Do you have comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.44: PodCamp Toronto reunion show part 2

• • PR

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It’s time for part two of our PodCamp Toronto ‘reunited’ shows featuring IPR creators Terry Fallis and Dave Jones joining Gini, Joe and me.

Terry continues as host and looks back to April 2006 when IPR began and how he and Dave felt the need to act quickly in order to establish themselves among the many, many burgeoning Canadian PR podcasts.   He observes that five years later the big PR podcasting wave has yet to hit.

Eden Spodek mentions recent CRTC research saying hobbyist podcasting is growing.

Martin contends MSM has done a great job podcasting their shows and wonders if that hasn’t had an effect on the number of people tuning into hobbyist podcasts.

Joe feels podcasts are fulfilling the expectations of people who are looking for niche content.

Gini believes we learn visually or by reading and not by listening and thinks that’s one of the reasons podcasting hasn’t exploded.

Joe talks about how businesses that experimented with audio podcasting quickly realized the power of putting that together with video.

Terry takes a straw poll of the crowd and asks how many people prefer audio or video podcasts. The audience is split 50/50. Terry talks about how much he likes audio and launches into a quasi-romantic story about the time he met Mitch Joel IRL… Enough said.

Martin asks Gini if she notices any difference between Canada and the US in social media?

Gini remarks that she’s impressed by PCTO’s ability to attract so many people and how well organized the free event is. She says she doesn’t think that there would be this many people attending in Chicago.

Martin wonders how you engage people in social media if you’re not a creator?

Joe thinks we’re all creators and need to have the passion to stick with it. The challenge is putting up with the work required to be creative.

Dave believes it’s about expectations and what keeps you motivated. He said that when he and Terry started IPR, they committed to do the show every week, aimed for consistency and quality and built an audience from there. It’s important to respect what your community wants and to do what’s right for you in your space.

Gini talks about community and uses an example of how her community came to her defense when another group criticized her en masse for her position in a blog post.

And that brings the second PodCamp Toronto show to a close…

Do you have comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and me on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.43: Then meets now at PodCamp Toronto – the reunion show part 1

• • PR

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Get ready for some familiar voices as Terry Fallis and Dave Jones join Joe, Gini and me for Inside PR, recorded before a ‘live studio audience’ at PodCamp Toronto.  #PCTO is Canada’s largest social media event, an unconference now in its fifth year.  Terry, Dave and I recorded episodes there in 2009 and 2010 and thought we’d get the (almost) whole crew together again. It’s a fun way to connect and reconnect with our listeners IRL.  And it’s always great to see and thank our talented and hard-working producer, Yasmine Kashefi!

This week, Terry plays ‘host’ after nearly a year’s hiatus and reminisces about our five-minute-before-the-show-planning.  He mentions PodCamp Toronto’s 5th anniversary and Joe notes PCTO has 1400 people registered.  Eden Spodek, one of the event organizers talks about how in 2007, its first year, there were 300 early adopters and people thought it was about podcasting, but it’s always been focused on social media.

Joe believes the quality of speakers and discussion further demonstrates that Toronto is not only a Canadian business centre, but also a digital centre second to none with many great events and a smart and engaged community.

Martin comments that attendance at PCTO mirrors the adoption of social media and asks Dave about ROI and potato chips.

Dave observes SM should be realistic about what you can accomplish: in year one it’s very much about recruitment and engagement followed by entertainment, activation and reward; building community over time.

Joe talks about Kobo and wonders if clients are developing a longer-term sense of value for social media or if the pressure is on immediate sales.

Jodi Echakowitz makes a comment about about integration and uses an example of how her client, Sympatico, helped increase Kid’s Help Phone’s database by supporting a community.

Martin asks Gini how she transformed her firm from pure PR into a social media agency.  Gini says she’s more of an integrated agency and talks about the need to educate clients on the fact that social media programs are a marathon. You have to built trust, credibility and relationships and that doesn’t happen overnight.

And that brings us to the end of part one of our #PCTO shows. We’d love to hear what you think and hope you tune in next week for part two.

Do you have comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and me on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.36 – Wednesday, January 12, 2011

• • canadian podcasting, Shownotes, social media

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Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin, Gini and Joe discuss viral videos and Quora, the question and answer website that everyone is talking about.

0:27 Martin opens the show.

1:32 Martin shares a story about talking social media with his local MP.

2:55 Gini starts off with the first topic of the episode: The homeless man with  golden voice.

4:38 Martin thinks it’s a great example of the kind of videos that go viral.

6:38 Joe reminds  us that there is no set formula for a viral video.

9:30 Joe thinks videos go viral because the appeal to a particular interest or cultural background. Unless you create a video with that in mind, it’s unlikely to be successful.

10:12 Martin recalls a panel he saw at South by South West Interactive and they gave three tips about making a great video: 1) develop a great story, 2) the production values need to match your story and 3) distribution and promotion.

11:34 Joe talks about the second topic of the show: Quora.com, a question and answer website and community. He thinks it’s a great research tool.

14:05 Gini wonders whether Quora is a social network or an open, unmoderated content reference website?

16:07 Joe says Quora is becoming a lot like a social network as it’s pure discussion, but on searchable answer basis.

16:30 Martin has recently signed up and is looking forward to playing with the website.

17:20 Martin closes the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.34 – Wednesday, December 22, 2010

• • canadian podcasting, Inside PR, PR, social media

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Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin, Gini and Joe finish discussing the trends of 2010 in their final episode of the year.

0:30 Martin opens the show.

1:36 Joe continues on the discussion by talking about his next trend, the social networking darlings: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

3:32 Gini references a chart by Business Insider that demonstrates how Twitter is being used.

4:00 Joe cites two Canadian examples of how Twitter is being used as a newswire of sorts.

6:16 Gini brings up the next trend: The PR industry talks about measurement a lot but we don’t really seem to know how to do it.

7:31 Joe mentions a post by Jeremiah Owyang on the subject that he recommends checking out.

8:35 Martin doesn’t think algorithims can explain it all. We need a human perspective.

9:00 Martin talks about a new trend: Too many PR practitioners are focusing too much on broadcasting and not enough on building relationships.

10:06 Joe talks about his final trend for 2010: The drop-off of unique, interesting voices in the blogosphere. He mentions a blog post by Brian Solis on the state of the blogosphere in 2010 on the importance of blogging.

13:26 Gini fears another dot-com burst with all the Google-Groupon type deals taking place.

16:05 Martin announces the last trend of the episode: The reemergence of Wikis.

19:40 Martin recaps the trends discussed in this week’s episode.

20:35 Martin closes the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.31 – Wednesday, December 1, 2010

• • Comments, PR, Show Notes

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Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin, Gini and Joe discuss PR spam and the difference between community and engagement.

0:25 Martin opens the show.

0:48 Martin announces this week’s topic, based on a suggestion from Petya Georgieva about PR spam. Petya asks what is social media PR spam and how does it differ from press release spam?

1:59 Gini points out that we talk about how bad it is to pitch to people to journalist and bloggers we don’t have relationships with, but many professionals still do it. Why?

3:55 Joe feels that hand built lists should be used whenever possible, but that’s not always possible depending on circumstances.

5:12 Gini shares an example of an unsolicited pitch she received from a vice-president at a global agency.

6:15 Martin doesn’t see any harm in asking if someone wants to receive information first. It helps build relationships.

8:03 Joe really likes Martin’s approach.

9:15 Joe believes a lot of junior practitioners don’t realize a small number of quality hits is a success.

10:20 Martin shares an approach to media relations developed by one of the VPs at energi pr, Lindsay Peterson.

11:15 Martin asks Gini about audience is on her blog, Spin Sucks, who are really engaged.

12:38 Gini differentiates between engagement and community.

14:48 Joe commends Gini on how she’s brought together a community on her various social channels.

16:30 Martin closes the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.27 – Wednesday, November 3, 2010

• • canadian podcasting, Comments, PR, Show Notes, social media

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Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin,  Gini and Joe talk rogue accounts and what, if anything, a company should do about them.

0:29 Martin opens the show.

1:53 Martin shares a comment from Daniel Davidzon. Daniel was wondering if Martin, Gini and Joe can weigh in on the proliferation of rogue accounts on Twitter.

2:40 Joe believes it should be a company’s responsibility to reserve their name on any social site and identify themselves as the owner.

5:15 A reporter had recently asked Gini if a company should own negative or derogatory names on social networking websites so others can’t use it  for bad purposes.

6:06 Joe thinks it’s a good idea for companies to do that.

6:52 Martin wonders if a company is doing a good job with their customers, does it matter when someone creates a “companysucks” site?

7:13 Joe and Gini believe it does.

12:28 Martin shares a comment from Eden Spodek and a question of his own that stemmed from it – how overt should PR people be when encouraging others to tweet or share about a client?

14:50 Joe thinks transparency is key.

18:57 Gini shares some thoughts about Follow Friday (#FF) on Twitter.

23:27 Martin closes the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.23 – Wednesday, October 6, 2010

• • Inside PR, Show Notes, social media

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Comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog or message us @inside_pr on Twitter.

This week on Inside PR, Martin,  Gini and Joe talk Twitter. #NewTwitter, that is.

0:23 Martin opens the show.

1:43 Martin announces the topic of this week’s show: Twitter’s new platform.

2:29 Gini tells us how she first started using Twitter.

3:31 Martin shares his introduction to Twitter and how his use of Twitter has changed over time.

6:53 Joe tells us about how he was first introduced to Twitter.

9:12 Gini mentions that she has never used Twitter.com and wonders if Joe and Martin use the website to access Twitter? Gini prefers using TweetDeck and HootSuite.

9:29 Joe uses the new Twitter app for the iPad. He uses TweetDeck on his desktop.

10:48 Martin uses the Twitter website and has gotten #NewTwitter. He does enjoy using HootSuite as well.

12:34 Joe asks if follower count matters?

14:50 Joe wonders if Klout really measures influence?

18:58 Martin asks Gini and Joe what it takes for them to follow people?

24:14 Joe wonders if Gini and Martin use Twitter differently from Facebook?

25:15 Joe asks Inside PR listeners how they use Twitter?

26:25 Martin wraps up the show.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.