Inside PR 2.87: We won’t delete your comments

February 9, 2012 • admin • PR

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It’s been an interesting week around the web with lessons about good and not-so-good communications. Gini mentions the blog post she wrote about the Susan G. Komen Foundation and how its decision to unplug their funding from Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screenings created a huge outpouring of support for Planned Parenthood and a reputation issue for Komen.

She talks about how poorly Komen handled communications around the issue including deleting comments from its Facebook page. She and a few people tried a test where they posted comments – from benign to negative – and took screen captures of their posts. The organization removed them all. She wonders why Komen didn’t consult with its communications advisors in advance to develop scenarios, messages and a crisis plan.

By now most of us have heard that based on the outcry, Komen reversed its decision.

We all agree deleting comments after the fact is one of the worst things organizations can do and they should decide at the outset whether or not they’ll accept comments and build trust via an open conversation.

Joe talks about Radio Royal York’s public video welcome to Blissdom organizers who were visiting Toronto. He hasn’t decided if it’s a mistake or a good way to engage with a customer and asks if anyone else had seen something similar. However, the situation is somewhat moot. At the time of writing, the video has been removed.

In case you missed it, our last topic is the upcoming Facebook IPO and the company’s disclosure that the majority of its revenue comes from ad dollars.

In fact, the big three social media players – Facebook, Twitter and Google+ – are all media companies of sorts and have finally figured out now they monetize their innovations – by selling us (and our data). There’s no doubt they’re great networks that extend the scope of our relationships, but we are still the product.

Martin wonders how they’ll deal with large policy issues like freedom of speech and feels governments should monitor the situation to ensure we keep the Internet open. Joe isn’t happy with that type of intervention – he’d rather see governments focus on education and standards.

Next week is Social Media Week in various cities around the world. Here’s where to get a full list of events. And if you’re in Toronto on February 17, Third Tuesday Toronto is hosting a breakfast event on open government featuring Tony Clement, M.P., President of the Treasury Board of Canada. It should be a lively discussion.

And that’s a wrap! We’ll talk to you next week.

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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 2.84: Are your measurement goals quantifiable and time-bound?

January 13, 2012 • admin • PR

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This week, we feature another interview from the PRSA International Conference. We talk to our good friend Shonali Burke, communications strategist and author of the Waxing Unlyrical blog, about PR and social media measurement, a subject all PR people should pay attention to because it demonstrates the value of our work and whether or not we’ve achieved our goals.

Shonali calls out three problems in the way we approach measurement:

The concept of measurable objectives has been lost – our objectives must be quantifiable and time-bound.
Buzz is not a goal – because people don’t know what they’re trying to achieve, they’re not approaching communications strategically.
People overcomplicate. Don’t focus on the tools but on what you’re trying to track and how.

Shonali mentions the Blue Key campaign, which asks Americans to donate $5 to raise awareness and support for refugee issues and how they track the program using custom URLs, Google Analytics and other tools to identify emerging trends.

She’s tired of PR professionals saying they’re not good at numbers and advises us to, ‘stop getting freaked out by math!’

Gini mentions that it’s not impressions or ad equivalencies that are important, but how we deliver the kinds of results that mean something to a client’s business. Joe adds that being in PR, we’re dealing with digital data all the time and need to get good at that. Martin suggests that as professional communicators we are all in business and, as such, should learn and understand the fundamentals of business.

Are you measuring your programs effectively and in a way that demonstrates real value to your clients or organizations? Do you have any thoughts or cases to add? We’d love to hear from you.

And thanks Shonali.

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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 2.81: On Google, Twitter and Marketing in the Round

December 15, 2011 • admin • PR

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First:
Listener comments responding to our discussion on ‘mean girls in PR’… Thanks to Jessica Suter from The Change PR, Lizanor Barrera and our own producer, Kristine Simpson, who submitted an audio comment (and graciously edited it in). The consensus from everyone is there are a lot of good, honest and ethical women and men working in the profession (and yes, there are a few stinkers, too…).

Next:
We officially announce Gini’s new book, Marketing in the Round, co-authored with Geoff Livingston. The publication date is May 2012, but it’s available to pre-order on Amazon and other sites (just in time for the holidays). It will be launched in Canada at Third Tuesday (Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver). Congratulations, Gini!

Then:
We move on to talk about some recent changes to Twitter and Google.

Joe sees the new features/updates as an example of how innovation is still occurring rapidly in social media; Twitter is looking more and more like a user friendly service. Martin admits he still likes the Twitter.com platform because he feels at home there.

Joe is disappointed by the changes to Tweetdeck, because it has fewer features and will now carry only Twitter and none of his other social feeds. He’s going to revisit Hootsuite.

Gini mentions Market Me Suite as another alternative.

Martin says he’s been a Hootsuite user for a while and likes the functionality. He wishes they would let users customize column width in order to see more streams at a glance.

Google introduced Currents, a magazine reader (not yet available in Canada) and is integrating Gmail with the Google+ platform.

Joe likes the quality of the interaction on Google+. He says you can describe Google+ as a place you go for ideas, Facebook, as a place to interact with friends and Twitter where you find out what’s going on. Within that model there’s lots of room for each platform to survive and thrive.

But what about LinkedIn? Martin believes many LinkedIn features could be integrated into Google+ to make it a good business networking and information resource.

Joe feels too many people on LinkedIn are promoting themselves as they look for jobs; what’s missing is the culture of generosity.

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We’d love to hear from you.

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 2.78: The plusses of Google+

November 24, 2011 • admin • PR

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We recorded Inside PR 2.76 on the day Google+ opened its pages to businesses and watched as companies developed their G+ presence in real time.

Now it’s a couple of weeks later, and we thought we’d take a closer look. Gini kicks it off by referencing her blog post on the topic. She calls out Google’s transparency in admitting they helped several companies build their brand pages in advance of the launch. However, she’s noticed some of those organizations haven’t grown their followings or done much posting.

She goes on to say while the social media bubble may have wanted G+ to be a Facebook slayer, that’s not likely Google’s intent. She believes it’s to give us a social reason for using Google and that will provide them with more data.

Martin likes the interface, that you can share directly from Google Reader and that Google docs, calendar and Gmail are all there. He wonders if there’s more of a business application to the platform because G+ is so open and when you’re with friends you want to be in a less public environment – a private room with the doors closed, like FB.

Joe calls out the ability to organize circles by interest. And in his circles for journalists, marketers, web design and PR, people continue to publish interesting discussions. Joe uses the platform to follow posts on an industry by industry basis.

Martin suggests it could be a mini-blogging platform without the constraint of 140 characters; a place for companies to start a larger discussion.

Some recent updates: G+ can be managed by third-party apps like Hootsuite. Right now, there’s only one administrator allowed for business pages – that’s going to change in the new year, but currently it’s a drawback.

And finally, we want to wish all our American friends and listeners a Happy Thanksgiving!

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We’d love to hear from you.

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 2.74: On the road with On the Record Online

October 28, 2011 • admin • PR

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We’re on the trade show of PRSA International Conference in Orlando talking with Eric Schwartzman – on a special joint episode with On the Record Online and Inside PR.

Like us, Eric also records his podcasts over Skype but prefers face to face interviews when he can. And he’s a veteran, who started in April 2005, just after For Immediate Release and around the same time Terry Fallis and David Jones began Inside PR.

Gini, Joe, Eric and I discuss the state of podcasting and Eric talks about his approach:

– He’s feature-oriented, as opposed to news focused, so his shows have a longer shelf-life.
– He continues podcasting because he likes to learn and finds when there’s a mic and recorder, he gets the best answers from experts.
– He sees which shows people love based on the stats, but doesn’t chase the audience; he does what interests him.
– He spends a good deal of time – about eight hours per episode – preparing, conducting interviews, editing and producing, writing and publishing show notes and publishing. It is a time commitment, but he gets nearly 1,000,000 downloads a year.

The discussion ends when a band starts up in the booth behind us.

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.

Inside PR special edition: spotlight on the PRSA International Conference

October 8, 2011 • Martin • PR

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The PRSA International Conference, the largest PR gathering in the world, takes place in Orlando, Florida, October 15 to 18, 2011. Inside PR is happy to be one of the event sponsors and we had a chance to chat with conference co-chair, Bonnie Upright, APR, and PRSA chair and CEO, Rosanna Fiske, APR, about what to expect.

The event offers a combination of learning, networking, fun and a wonderful opportunity to connect with peers, colleagues, clients, and potential employers.

This year’s theme, ‘Imagine. Create. Inspire.’, speaks to how the profession – and the way we do our jobs – is evolving.

‘We’re no longer simply purveyors of news releases, we’ve become storytellers.’

There are five programming tracks – Strategies, Tools and Techniques, Specialization, ROI, Leadership and Management – that feature sessions on digital/social media, traditional PR, crisis communications and professional development/accreditation.

Keynotes include: CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien speaking about diversity, Disney imaginer Joe Rohde, whose talk is entitled ‘Theme is a Noun’ and Chris Brogan discussing online communities and how to engage them for your business.

Ultimately, the conference is about people, reconnecting, connecting and engaging with a global network of peers who understand your craft, the profession, your challenges and how the world of communications is transforming.

You can follow the Twitter stream at #PRSAIcon.

And if you haven’t registered and are interested in attending, you can get $100 off the registration by completing this form and entering the code SAVE100.

Join us for a Tweetup

Inside PR is hosting a poolside Tweetup on Monday, Oct 17. Here’s the e-vite with details. Hope to see you there.

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_pron 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 2.69: TV or not TV…that is the question

September 22, 2011 • admin • PR

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Gini, Joe and Martin start off by announcing they’ll be attending the PRSA International Conference in Orlando, Florida, October 15 to 18 as ‘roving reporters’ roaming the halls and recording episodes of Inside PR. If you have any suggestions for topics or would like to do an interview, please let us know.

Inside PR is also sponsoring a tweetup at the conference on Monday, October 17 – details to follow. We hope to see you there.

Joe then talks about a post on the Niemen Journalism Lab blog, ‘A Vast Wasteland Revisited’, to mark the 50^th anniversary of FCC Chair Newton Minnow’s speech about television’s potential for greatness… or garbage (i.e. the wasteland).

He feels the ideas resonate more than ever today with social media and especially Facebook, which can be seen as another ‘vast wasteland’.

Martin segues into some of the changes Facebook has made recently including the ability to subscribe to feeds from people you’re not friends with and its new lists function. Gini thinks the change is an interesting play on privacy and if you just want to communicate with friends, you should turn off the subscription option. Gini uses Facebook for business publicly and is more private about her personal profile.

Joe thinks this could be the week Facebook lost it by overcomplicating things and introducing too many features. He believes Twitter is a great news feed; Google+ is the place to have conversations with smart people and blogs are where you go to read and comment on long-form ideas.

Martin mentions the fact that you now have lists on the left side between groups and pages and the defaults aren’t working well for him. For example, the college default is a random group of friends who happened to go to the same university he did at some point and doesn’t have any cohesiveness beyond place.

For our second topic, Gini talks about Netflix CEO Reed Hastings saying how the company ‘messed up’ the way it handled the price increase. She believes he shows some humility because, while Netflix had moved away from listening to its customers and made the decision in a boardroom, a customer uproar caused them to admit they were wrong.

Gini goes on to say it’s clear Netflix wants to shed its DVD service and move to streaming, but from a communication perspective, they should have had better counsel. Joe discloses that one of his clients works in a similar space – but as an outside observer, he’s impressed when any company is honest with its customers. It will be interesting to see if their actions are enough for people to give them another chance.

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_pron 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.