Mike’s Points

Well, not me necessarily. But, companies do have the power . . . to control their brand. Some may call it a company’s “tag.”

Granted, not total control, but, do we really ever have total control over anything? Not really. Companies never did, do and won’t have total control over their brand. That’s one area where I agree with some bloggers.

But, companies do have more control over their brand than any other entity, individual or groups of individuals. Period. So, get over it.

How?

> Through marketing materials like ads, media and public relations, direct mail, sales literature, etc.
> Through communication with customers, prospects, decision-makers and opinion leaders via Web sites, corp blogs, sales people, customer service, purchasing personnel, etc.
> AND through acting consistently and with focus through the above people and during the above activities.

Only then will the brand, image or tag companies wish to convey predominantly come out.

Will everyone have the same perceptions of the company? No, but the prevailing perception will be the one, or very close to the one the company is trying to convey. As long as the brand and effort remains consistent and focused.

Now, how to be consistent and focused is a topic for another post.
– Mike

Technorati tag: branding

Hey, I gotta have some good stuff (even if it does link to others) rather than have the Strumpette soap opera at the top of my post lists. So, for your reading, surfing and thinking pleasure, I point you to:

Somebody Give Hugh Hewitt a Distinguished Service Medal, Scott Baradell/Media Orchard

Mere consumption of media does not a media critic make/Romenesko Letters, Poynter’s Romensko

Wouldst Thou Drink From The Holy Grail?, Todd Defren/PR Squared

Women 10 Percent of Top Bloggers, Kami Huyse, APR/Communication Overtones

Alka-Seltzer Stunts way into Guinness, Peter Shankman/PR Differently

Across the Web/Print Divide, Cyberjournalist.net

Blogging’s impact on PR (and vice versa), Christian Crumlish/Radio Free Blogistan

– Mike

Tag: Tags? We don’t need no stinkin’ tags!

UPDATED 4:33 p.m.: Looks like the Strumpette is back up. Up and down. Up and down. Looks like a yo-yo today.

Just saw the below when curiousity got the better of me and I checked the Strumpette.com site.

Could this be the end of our “fling” with Amanda Chapel/Brian Connolly?

Did Amanda and Brian have a fight?

Did Edelman hack the site?

What is Scott Baradell doing for links these days?

Was Strumpette.com really an April Fool’s joke??

Inquiring — okay, okay nosey — minds want to know.

Mike

Technorati tags: This is not worth any Technorati tags.

Many bloggers have blogged about begging for links, joining the so-called A-list, and other ways to build your blog links and brand your blog.

But, of course, it has nothing really to do with content! It’s the same-old, same-old: Just the right mixture of sexuality with mixture of controversy and some chest-beating about how honest you are.

That’s how you build comments and links.

So, now, I do have a confession — and a pool of my own — to make.

First, I’ve been living a lie. I’m not who you really think I am.*

Actually, let’s have a game. Who am I?

Heck, even I don’t know at times.

But, enough about of sexy ol’ me.

Now, for the controversy part. HHHMMMM?

My sources tell me there is trouble brewing in the blogosphere. I’ve been wondering about the Bad Pitch Blog. Then, soon thereafter, there was the Good Pitch Blog. What’s that about?

Let’s get a pool going to see which’ll cease to exist first! $0.25 per square for any date after April 1.

Then, you know what I heard? Well, it seems that a few well-known bloggers are planning to quit to . . . .

Wait. Can’t spill the beans on that one yet.

Arrivederci,
- Lucky Bernard

Now, after our two-day PR escapism, let’s get back to more serious stuff.

*My apologies to Chris Jericho, Austin Powers and Fred Flinstone.

Not blogging a conference. There is a difference.

For my day job, I researched and started reading a bunch of military blogs earlier this year. Still am reading them, and likely will continue to read at least some of them here on out. I’ve learned a lot, and have been emotionally, personally moved at times.

Did you know that there’s a milblogger conference on April 22? (By the links, you can probably safely say yes.)

So, I got to thinking, what other kind of niche or non-mainstream blogging conferences are there? I did some research, and found the below list . . . along with a couple other blog sites of interest. So, are these on your conference schedule (listed in no particular order)?

BlogHer Conference, July 28 & 29, San Jose, Calif.

Godblog Conference. There was one in October 2005, but the current site doesn’t work. Can’t tell if there’ll be one in 2006.

Tracking online food blogging events

Fashion & Blogging Conference. Was Oct. 3, 2005, during Fashion Week. Haven’t found any reference to one in 2006. There was Digital Lifestyle Day (Jan. 23-24, 2006, in Munich).

Northern Voice: Canada’s Blogging Conference, was Feb. 10-11, 2006, U of British Columbia

There might be a wine bloggers conference in 2006.

Now, for the other blogs I found of interest:

AAPR Issues blog (recently marked it’s first anniversary)

For sale: Patriot Blog. (eBay bidding starts at $2500, though.)

A non-profit blog exchange, with some background/explanation here. It looks like it includes some good info. for non-profit blogging, as well.

So, what have I missed? What other blogging conferences are there, besides the ‘run-of-the-mill” (expected) ones?

– Mike

Technorati tags: blog conferences

Now, don’t go branding me as one who thinks the MSM establishment will be crumbling soon. It won’t. Trust me. Traditional media outlets are still very much needed, and are a valuable outlet for media relations.

But, bloggers — in a growing number of niches — are becoming more prevalent and sought-after.

The other day, Steve Rubel/Micro Persuasion posted about President Bush’s encouragement to read blogs.

For further evidence, see/hear former Green Beret Michael Yon — a blogger who once was embedded with a Marine unit in Iraq — on Anderson Cooper’s 360 in a very interesting discussion of the MSM’s coverage of the war and rebuilding efforts in Iraq. Hugh Hewitt, Time’s Michael Ware and CNN’s Nic Robertson were also guests.

PLEASE keep any comments on the role of bloggers and MSM. Don’t go political on me, or I’ll shut down comments.
– Mike

Technorati tags: bloggers, mainstream media, milbloggers

There will always been a need for “mass media” outlets like network and cable news, national and large circulation papers and magazines, and even the general circ. newspapers.

But, they’ll take on less importance, in the role of corporate marketing and communications.

The continued growth in blogs, podcasts, discussion forums and communities, and the next unknown social medium advancement is a boom for public relations professionals. I mean good, honest, hard-working public relations professionals.

You can still be honest and forthright while representing and putting forth marketing-related messages and information for a company. PR pros are, or should be experts in engaging the public in discussion about companies, issues, products, concerns, etc. No matter what we do, it’s a core skill to be able to work with people — whether traditional media or public affairs or event-organization or internal communications or whatever roles we have under the broad umbrella of public relations.

Blogs and other social media enable us to communicate with highly qualified, targeted customers, prospects, decision-makers and key-influencers.

Isn’t that more effective than via mass media?

And, as these niche communities and vehicles (blogs, etc.) for varying interests continue to grow, our time for and dependence on mass media will lesson. As a prime example, circulation numbers for newspapers continue to drop.

We’ll still need experience and skills in dealing with traditional media — consumer and trade media. But, we need to also explore the current social media movement. If we want long-term survival and professional growth in public relations.

Point to ponder: In engaging bloggers and others in social media, we must not forget who we are dealing with. Not “bloggers.” But, people. Just like you and me. With feelings, families, likes and dislikes, egos, priorities, etc.

– Mike

Technorati tags: bloggers, public relations, PR, mass media

For your reading, consuming and thought-provoking pleasure, I’m pointing you to these interesting posts and stories:

> Transparency and the Resume, Communication Overtones/Kami Huyse, APR

> Euroblog Conference Papers Available - the best in European new media research, Conversationblog/Philippe Borremans

> The News Product, The Flack/Peter Himler

> a.k.a Green Plans A “Build It Green” Series For PBS, Treehugger

> What does Internet accountability mean for magazines?, BusinessWeek’s Blogspotting/Stephen Baker

> Take Your Time On Emails, But Respond To Text Messages Quickly!, Techdirt (Nice new look, BTW!)

> ‘Wash Post’ Launches Conservative Blog, Provokes a ‘Firestorm,’ Editor & Publisher (via Romenesko)

Mr. Transparency himself has resurfaced with a very good post Sunday about, among other things, PR/blogging/transparency.

Then, there’s the Friday post about PR and transparency by Daniel Bernstein of BitePR.

Of course, these follow on the heels of the great Wal-Mart/Edelman-blogger conversation in early March.

Though very much appreciated, the need for Pepper’s championing of transparency for PR dealing in social media is unfortunate. In the pursuit of work, money, fame, results, etc., basic moral and ethical standards can fall by the wayside.

(Image uploaded 03/22/06)

Transparency is essentially being straight-forward, open and honest in your dealings with others, bloggers and non-bloggers. Right?

But, when should you be transparent? Always?

Total — or too much — disclosure is not always called for.

As with traditional media, PR pros should be familiar with the blogs that are pertinent to their clients, particularly if they will be “pitched” to possible outlets for information.

Does that mean you only read the blogs you are exploring, and never comment and participate in discussions? We do, afterall, have interests outside of our work. If you comment, should you add an: “Oh, by the way, I might contact you later on behalf of a client to . . . . .”

No. Why should you if you are just exploring? You should still be honest and sincere, but you don’t need to say right off the bat why you started reading those blogs.

As a vague example, I’ve been exploring a certain niche of blogs on behalf of a client. Since January, I’ve regularly read about eight to a dozen blogs of interest. And, I’ve commented on many of them where I had $0.02 to say. Granted, I’ve commented with my Yahoo! e-mail and this blog, rather than my work e-mail and my employer’s site.

Has that been wrong? Have I been only translucent? Opague, even? Only time (and maybe the comments) will tell.

I’ll only contact a few of those blogs with what we have in mind for the project. When I do contact the few bloggers, I’ll be open, honest and upfront about why I’m contacting them — and use my work information, and fully disclose that I’ve been reading and/or commenting on their blogs, listing my own blog as a point of reference.

And, honestly, I do intend to continue to read at least some of the blogs after this project is over — for personal interests as well as professional ones.

There is such a thing as too much information. But, as long as you are always acting with integrity and honesty, then you are being transparent. Is that clear enough?

– Mike

P.S. I know that by not being black-and-white on the subject of transparency I’ve opened the door for some to rationalize actual dishonest behavior. But, very few things are as simple as black-and-white.

Technorati tags: transparency, PR, public relations, Jeremy Pepper

Perspective is an interesting thing.

It takes time and experience to gain it, and you can also easily lose it once you do have it. The key is never to lose sight of it.

Growing up, I collected baseball cards. At least once a month or every couple months, my dad and I would go to a baseball card show in the area. Once you stepped inside the hall, it was like a whole new universe opened up. While the time you were there, there was nothing else: just that little universe of baseball and sports card buyers, sellers and enthusiasts.

Once you stepped outside, walking towards the car, you realized there was more to life than just baseball cards.

In public relations, as well as other forms of marketing communications, it’s easy to lose sight that there are other “universes” we have to keep track of — even if we haven’t explored them yet.

For example, in one universe, you have those who focus on traditional marcomm, and see advertising as the best way for companies to reach their markets. Or, they focus on public relations (though, they really mean media relations, but that’s a previous post).

Then, you can have a second universe who focus on social media or word-of-mouth (WOM) communications like blogging as the best way for companies to reach customers and prospects.

Often, those in the first universe won’t even consider the other because it’s too new for their current needs; they can’t see how it’ll fit into their future.

You also have people in the second universe who see traditional marcomm as out of date with the times.

Be wary of beings from either of these universes.

They’ve lost perspective.

Whether you work on the client side or the agency side in PR and other marcomm, it’s your responsibility to:

> Be aware of the objectives of your company or clients.
> Work to perfect your core universe while being open to exploring others — old and new.
> Offer your best counsel and tactical performance to meet the objectives — no matter what universe(s) is(are) needed.

Those in executive management, R&D, sales and other universes of your company or clients rely on you to counsel, navigate and steer them throughout the entire marketing communications universe.

The only way to effectively do that is to maintain perspective.
– Mike

Technorati tags: perspective, public relations, PR

In my job, there’s almost nothing that compares to the natural high I get when I get a good “hit.”

What’s a hit? Well, some would call it a “placement.” But, that gives more credit to the media relations pro than deserved, and less credit to the media contact who ultimately decided to use it.

Basically, a hit is a story or part of a story printed, published, aired or broadcast by a media outlet in which the MR pro had a role in. I’d even go as far as to say the hit has to be intended.

But, what makes up a hit?

First, as much as we in PR like to take pride in our work, for the most part, you can’t get a hit without first a good story – something that has news or feature value.

If you’ve worked in MR long enough, you’ve written and distributed a news release that was not newsy at all. But, you did it as part of a trade show kit or something similar. And, hopefully, you’ve not done it often, and you knew it was fluff and told your client it was so as to manage expectations.

The second part of a hit is judgment. We have to work with employers and clients to dig, develop and counsel them what makes a good story: Something that brings value to our media’s audiences while accomplishing at least one of our objectives (awareness, branding, education, etc.).

The third part is how that story is related to the media. That story has to be part of an early trend, a topic the media outlet has not addressed, have real news value, be different or weird, or somehow be of interest to the media outlet’s audiences.

As an example, I worked on a project for the local humane society about one of its volunteers. This lady spent a week last fall volunteering in New Orleans helping to rescue, tag and care for pets left behind by residents who were evacuated because of Hurricane Katrina. This volunteer brought back to her Toledo-area home one of the dogs she rescued. All of the major area media outlets had done stories connected to Hurricane Katrina’s human victims. After researching their sites, I found that very few had done any pet-related stories. So, with some customization and variation, my pitch to the local media was something like:

“I know The Blade has done many localized stories on Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the Gulf Coast, from sending reporters to the area the days following, to talking with local volunteers who traveled there in the weeks and months afterwards. However, other than the Oct. 4 editorial, I’ve only seen one local story about the pets impacted by Hurricane Katrina (on Nov. 12).

Would you be interested in how one Toledo Area Humane Society volunteered a week in St. Barnard Parish, brought back one dog, saw to it that the dog recovered from neglect from its owners and from the hurricane, and is now very happy with her adoptive family?”

The result of that particular pitch is here.

A fourth part of a successful hit is how that story is presented to the media. Whether you are develping a news release or a story idea, you need to have materials available that the media will use. This goes from sending the media your materials in the format(s) of its preference to making sure your sources are readily available for interviews.

While I mentioned that every good hit starts with a good story, the right combination of the good story and how we work with the media to communicate that story goes a long way to achieving those good hits.

Updated 9 a.m. ET 03-15-06:
Point to ponder: Of course, almost no matter how good the story is and how well it is pitched to the media, it doesn’t mean you’ll score a hit. Remember that you are in competition with the other news and features at the time. If you don’t score a hit, try another time if the story can wait.

– Mike

Technorati tags: PR, public relations, media relations