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Cision Releases Tip Sheet on Using Twitter as Part of a Communications Strategy

Cision, a global provider of media monitoring, research, distribution, and evaluation services for the public relations profession has released a new tip sheet titled "Using Twitter to Become Part of the Conversation - How Twitter can become a Key Element of your Communications Effort." The top three tips: "Get in the game. Choose your friends. Listen closely." You can download the full, very informative tip sheet here for free: http://us.cision.com/campaigns/2008_twitter_tips/request.asp

Popularity: 16% [?]

ProfNet on Twitter

Did you know ProfNet is now on Twitter? You can view urgent reporter queries (with the reporter's permission), updates of new Topic Alerts for your experts to participate in, and other news and announcements. If you're on Twitter, follow ProfNet at http://twitter.com/profnet

Popularity: 15% [?]

How to Shine a Light on the Real, Ethical Work of PR

CBS News Analyst Andrew Cohen probably tells a joke at parties: “You know how to tell when a PR person is lying? His lips are moving.”

Probably nobody laughs. It’s an old joke, even if it is usually applied to politicians. But Cohen let everyone know where he stands on the practice of public relations on CBS Sunday Morning, when he said: "Show me a PR person who is “accurate” and “truthful,” and I’ll show you a PR person who is unemployed."

Cohen was commenting on the case of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who has revealed in a tell-all book that he lied on behalf of the U.S. presidential administration. Cohen pointed to PRSA’s code of ethics, but shrugged it off by articulating a belief a lot of people have: “During the time it took me to write this essay I’ll bet dozens of PR people blatantly lied to their audiences, despite the presence of proclamations declaring that they should not.”

PRSA was very quick to respond, as well they should have. The national PR association’s home page features a prominent link to a statement from PRSA Chair and CEO Jeffrey Julin that makes a robust argument on behalf of all those employed practitioners who adhere to the ethical standards set by PRSA, IABC, and other associations that represent communicators and the organizations for which they work. Julin notes that those who are not accurate and truthful are far more likely the ones to wind up unemployed:

"For public relations professionals, engaging diverse and often skeptical audiences requires top-flight skills in communications, creativity and even persuasion, but a trust once lost cannot be regained. Unemployment, contrary to your opinion, is reserved for the professional who has lost his or her credibility."

(By the way, Neville Hobson reported on PRSA’s swift response on our podcast, For Immediate Release.)

Not too long ago, I would have responded to Mr. Cohen’s cynical assertion that all PR people are liars with a hearty, “Screw you, Andy.” I have since come to realize, though, that Cohen—along with most other observers of PR—react only to what they see. What they see is clueless pitching and reports of PR counselors engaged in spin, half-truths, and outright lies, since these are the tales reported in the news and on blogs. What percentage is there in reporting on a PR effort executed professionally and ethically?

PRSA’s response is a good one, but it probably won’t change anybody’s mind. The cynics like Cohen will merely roll their eyes and say, “Well what’s an organization like PRSA supposed to say?”

I’m not the first person to suggest that PR needs to undertake a PR campaign, and I’m still not sure how it could be done without appearing disingenuous. But somehow, we need to shine the light on the tens of thousands of ethical, honest practitioners who work hard every day on behalf of their clients while upholding the spirit and letter of the codes of ethics to which they are bound.

One method is already underway—it’s for professionals like Todd Defren, Brian Solis, Phil Gomes, Mike Manuel, Niall Cook and hundreds of others to talk about their client work candidly and openly on their blogs. (There’s been a fair amount of discussion lately about whether PR people should shine a light on their own efforts, since it has traditionally been viewed as inappropriate. But the world has changed and social media have made it more acceptable to write about the work you’ve done on a client’s behalf—with that client’s permission, of course.) It would also be great if someone started a clearinghouse site or blog that aggregated cases of PR conducted in a way that would make Cohen and his ilk rethink their assumptions.

I may take up this effort myself, in my copious free time.

One way or another, it’s time to stop protesting and start demonstrating that most PR work is not represented by the cases that make the news or inspire blacklists.

This article was originally posted on Shel's blog, A Shel of My Former Self. It is re-published here with permission.

Shel Holtz, ABC is a Founding Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. Mr. Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. He has been advising companies on how to use online tools for public relations and corporate communications since 1996. Before that, he was a communications consultant and practice leader for Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group. He has also been director of corporate communications at two Fortune 500 companies, Mattel and Allergan. He is the author of several books, including “Public Relations on the Net,” “The Intranet Advantage,” and “Corporate Conversations.” He’s on the Web at www.holtz.com and blogs at blog.holtz.com.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Society for New Communications Research Study Finds That Press Releases Are Not Just for Press Anymore; Research Sponsored by Vocus, Inc.

The press release is no longer just a tool for public relations professionals. In fact, marketing professionals and small business owners now use press releases with just as much frequency as PR professionals, according to a new Society for New Communications Research study, “Exploring the ROI of Online Press Releases,” which was sponsored by SNCR Vendor Council member Vocus. Furthermore, the press release was once used to attract the attention of journalists and media outlets. Now, it is used to accomplish a much greater range of goals including reaching bloggers, driving website traffic, and search engine optimization (SEO). More than 420 marketing and public relations professionals, as well as small business owners participated in a detailed online survey that was available from March 31 - April 16, 2008. The questionnaire asked respondents how and why they use online press releases and how they measure the value of online press releases.

Top findings include:

* The press release is becoming a communications tool for both public relations and marketing professionals alike. Approximately one-third of respondents were marketing professionals (32.9%); 30% were public relations professionals. Small business owners and self-employed individuals accounted for 23.7% of those who issue online press releases, acording to the survey.

* New goals and priorities for press releases are emerging. In addition to reaching the press and announcing news, today’s top priorities for those issuing online press releases include: increasing visibility and credibility for the organization, directly reaching customers, making content available to online users, and search engine optimization (SEO).

* Bloggers have joined traditional media as highly valued targets. Respondents indicated that reaching bloggers and new media outlets were nearly as high a priority as reaching traditional media. Seventy-three percent indicated that it is “important to very important” to reach traditional media via their online press releases while 67.7% indicated that it is “important to very important” to reach bloggers and new media outlets. For small business owners, reaching bloggers and social media sites was slightly more important than reaching traditional media.

* Measures of value and success are changing. Respondents rank their top measures of value for their online press releases by how many times the press release is published on other websites and the number of online views of the release. Both of these metrics rated higher than articles or media interview requests based on the release. In fact, respondents indicated that the most important placements for the releases are online news aggregators, such as Google News, Yahoo News and online news sites like Reuters and Topix, followed by blogs and social media sites. In addition, respondents noted that the two most valuable aspects of issuing online news releases is the opportunity for SEO and the opportunity to reach both consumers and customers directly, as well as traditional media.

* PR and marketing professionals have different priorities and perspectives. Respondents who identified themselves as public relations professionals noted they primarily use online press releases to announce news and enhance thought leadership, while respondents who identified themselves as marketing professionals stated their priorities as SEO optimization for the organization’s website and reaching customers and consumers. Small business owners stated that they use online press releases as a sales tool to reach customers and consumers.

* Hard measures of value and success are a challenge. Respondents stated that their top challenges in maximizing the value of issuing online press releases include: “cutting through the clutter,” targeting and distribution, affordability and measurement and metrics. “Respondents seemed to want to measure the value of their online releases as they would an ad or marketing campaign,” stated Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu, SNCR research fellow and assistant professor in communication studies at Clemson University. “They stated that they would like to be able to measure ‘eyeballs’ and ‘dollar value’. “

“This study indicates that this basic PR tool is branching out and evolving from press release to news release. The results show that other professions besides PR use news releases for purposes other than media relations. Reaching out to bloggers and new media was an expected result, but the news release is used to reach out directly to the public, not only to the ‘press’,” added Vorvoreanu.”Press releases are still an important tool for PR professionals, but the broad range of benefits and increased accessibility have allowed a wider variety of professionals - including marketers and small business owners — to use the medium to share compelling stories,” commented Jiyan Wei, Vocus, online product manager, PRWeb and a member of the SNCR’s Vendor Council and Advisory Board. “News releases are not just for the Fortune 500, but have become a valuable tool for smaller businesses to increase their sales and create publicity.”

The team of SNCR research fellows who conducted the study included Shel Holtz, SNCR founding fellow and principal of Holtz Communication + Technology and Dr. Mihaela Vorvorneau, a 2008 SNCR fellow and assistant professor at Clemson University, working in conjunction with TWI Surveys, Inc.

The results of the study will be shared in a presentation led by SNCR executive director Jen McClure at the 2008 Vocus Users Conference, which will be held June 4-6 in Washington, DC. The final results will also be highlighted in the Society’s Journal of New Communications Research, published in a full report that will be available from SNCR, and shared at the Society’s annual Research Symposium in Fall 2008. A series of recommendations for the PR/marketing communications profession will also be presented by the SNCR’s Best Practices committee.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Society for New Communications Research Launches New Study, “Exploring the ROI of Online Press Releases” - Please Take the Survey

The Society for New Communications Research is pleased to announce the launch of a new research study, sponsored by Vocus, a member of the SNCR Vendor Council.

Our new study is titled “Exploring the ROI of Online Press Releases.”The research is being led by a team of SNCR Fellows including Shel Holtz and Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu. Through a survey and case studies, they will explore how the value of press releases has traditionally been measured and how that is changing as a result of how press releases are being used by the PR/marketing profession today. It will address the question: What are appropriate measurements of value today? And it will explore the larger question of how the PR profession is evolving. Based on this research, SNCR will provide advice and insight into how to maximize the value and measure the ROI of online press releases. A series of recommendations for the PR/marketing communications profession will be presented by the SNCR’s Best Practices committee.

SNCR invites public relations and marketing professionals to participate in this research. A brief survey questionnaire is available at Online Press Release Survey

All participants will receive a complimentary copy of the executive summary of the final report and a special discount to attend New Communications Forum, April 22-25, in Sonoma County, Calif., where the initial findings will be released in a special session. The event will be sponsored in part by Vocus. The final results will be highlighted in the Journal of New Communications Research and published in a full report that will be available from SNCR.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Society for New Communications Research Releases Best Practices for Blogger Relations Tip Sheet

The Best Practices Committee of the Society for New Communications Research has released it’s latest Tip Sheet, “Best Practices for Blogger Relations.”

As the media relations function expands to include citizen journalists and bloggers, many public relations professionals are seeking guidance and best practices for how to address this shift.

Seven SNCR Fellows who are members of the Society’s Best Practices committee contributed to the tip sheet. Elisa Camahort of BlogHer, John Cass, Mike Manuel of Voce Communications, Mark Hannah of Edelman, Meghan Hindman of Dorland, David Parmet of Marketing Begins at Home and Brian Solis of FutureWorks PR contributed their best advice. Some of their tips include:

• Do your research to understand the blogger and the his/her focus and interests.
• Forget about THE A-list and find YOUR A-list.
• Create relationships with the bloggers in your industry.
• Never send a blogger an unsolicited press release.
• Remember that you can’t always expect bloggers to honor exclusives as traditional media might.
• Separate the external corporate blogging function from the blogger relations function.

The “Best Practices for Blogger Relations” Tip Sheet will be made available to SNCR members free of charge, or is available to non-members for a $25 donation to the Society. Visit http://www.sncr.org/membership for membership and donation information.

The Fellows of the Society for New Communications Research will share more best practices at the SNCR’s annual conference, New Communications Forum, which will be held April 22-25, 2008 in Sonoma County, CA.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The Infrastructure of Relationships

It seems I am going back to basics these days, reexamining the words we use to describe the practice of communications. Today, I found myself thinking about trust and relationships. This was sparked by my reading of a recent paper on Trust and PR Practice by Brad L. Rawlins. It is an interesting and useful article, particularly for its review of the literature of trust and its role in relationship building, a primary goal of public relations. It got me thinking about relationships, however, as it didn't really address the content of them: Who is involved in a relationship? Is it only people? Or is there truly an ability to have a relationship with an abstraction, such as a brand or corporation? What would "relationship" look like at this abstracted level and what could PR do here?

I followed a trail of breadcrumbs at the Institute for Public Relations website, which has lots of good research. Clicking on "Relationships" I found a number of articles, mostly about measurement. One was particularly interesting, by Elizabeth Dougall, Tracking Organization-Public Relationships Over Time: A Framework for Longitudinal Research. In her review of the literature about measuring relationships, she identifies a weakness: measurement of relationships usually is based on the perspectives of the people involved. But the question is, can relationships be measured as an entity in itself (abstraction or not)? It seems it can, primarily through looking at the formalization of structures, the intensity of flows (information and resources), standardization and outcomes (effectiveness, reciprocity). Dougall's paper actually looks at corporate conflict with activist groups, and she identifies "relationship-signaling statements" as part of analyzing the flows.

This helped me think again about my questions above. Perhaps there are two layers to relationships and PR needs to address both: the personal side and the infrastructural side. But before I get to that, I have to backtrack a bit. One thing that neither Dougall's nor Rawlin's paper offered was a definition of relationship. So, I headed over to my usual first source, the Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Here's what I found: relationship -- "the relation connecting or binding participants in a relationship." Also, "a state of affairs existing between those having relations or dealings." Finally, "a passionate attachment." Obviously, I had to look at the word relation in order to make any sense of this. There are two definitions of relation I like: "the attitude or stance which two or more persons or groups assume toward one another" and "the state of being mutually or reciprocally interested (as in social or commercial matters)." And interested: "having the attention engaged" or "being affected or involved."

Let's synthesize a bit: A relationship is a state of affairs connecting or binding mutually or reciprocally interested (affected/involved) people/groups. The "state of affairs" is the structure and processes (flows). Mutual/reciprocal interest ties us back to trust:

"Trust is one party’s willingness—shown by intention and behavior—to be vulnerable to another party based on confidence developed cognitively and affectively that the latter party is (a) benevolent, (b) reliable, (c) competent, (d) honest, and (e) open." [Link]

Trust has also been identified as a key factor in persuasion, along with competence and goodwill. (I have previously written about how social media can help to foster trust, as it is particularly good (structurally) for creating goodwill.)

If the job of public relations is to foster trusted relationships, there is certainly a variety of best practices out there that can be followed. These practices work both from a mass communications level (competence, trust) and on a more individual/networked communications level -- where social media tactics tend to play out (competence, trust and goodwill). It doesn't seem, however, that these tactics really get at how to foster trusted relationships at the infrastructure level.

This is where I think the tools of social media can really help. I think that particularly in the area of information and resource flows, social media can amp up the intensity, both in terms of more channels as well as more "buzz" or conversations. By identifying and open new channels of communication between an organization and its publics, for example, particularly for mutual influence and mutual exchange -- communication that moves in both directions -- we can potentially impact the level of trust on both sides of the communications. This is without even considering the content of the channels themselves. We also need to better identify the signs of relationships at the infrastructural level, so we can more accurately identify and measure them, as well as trace them backwards to the individuals or groups involved.

Perhaps that is a good research project for someone: putting some rigorous thought into the infrastructure of relationships in a world of social media, and the impact on organizational trust. Perhaps then we can betting figure out what PR can accomplish at the abstraction layer.

The preceding article was originally posted on Elizabeth's blog, CorporatePR

Popularity: 15% [?]

Improving the Quality of Organizational Decisions and Accelerating Their Time of Implementation: An Executive Imperative - The Role of Strategic Public Relations

On Public Relations

by Toni Muzi Falconi

The Argument

If I had ten savvy CEOs from the private, public and social sectors of the economy around a table and, at a certain point of our conversation, I asked them:

"Amongst the following three challenges you face today, which, in your opinion, is the one that deserves your priority attention?"

... and the three challenges were:

- Identify, attract, retain and capitalize talent;

- Improve the quality of management decisions and accelerate their time of implementation;

- Effectively integrate the best of technology into day-to-day activities…

….which of the three do you believe would receive the most points and which the least?

I have tried this test three times on different occasions and in different countries in recent months, and the results have been always the same. The third challenge is always last, the first comes in second and the second choice, is always selected as the highest priority.

In short, I have reason to believe that to ”improve the quality of management decisions and accelerate their time of implementation” is at least more important than the other two and possibly, today’s single most relevant challenge to organizational leadership.

Let us investigate why this is so today, and was probably not so ten years ago. In my view, the fundamental reason is that in this last decade society at large has sparked a new pervasive activity amongst an increasing number of relevant subjects, which may be defined as ‘participation in the decision-making process of organizations’ in which these subjects are conscious of holding a stake, either because the organization causes consequences on them or vice-versa.

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Popularity: 6% [?]

Next Practices: Story-Telling Wins Out

ON PUBLIC RELATIONS

By Jon Harmon, Force for Good Communications

It’s a bit of a paradox.

If you don’t get the sense that we’re standing at an amazing moment in the development of the profession of public relations -- truly in the midst of a communications revolution – then you probably aren’t reading these words right now.

But, if you have read this far, you are at least an interested passer-by in the blogosphere and the evolution of “participatory media.” (Even if the word “blog” soon will seem “so 2006” it won’t spell the end to the sea change in the communications dynamic.)

Or perhaps you’ve bought the whole “new media revolution” hook, line and sinker. You’ve thrown out your paper Rolodex wheel with all your journo contacts. Who needs to talk through the annoying filter of the news media mostly populated by cynics who aren’t very impressed with your product? Who needs ‘em! We can talk directly to our customers like we’ve always dreamed.

Well, not exactly … Mass media relations are still critically important but the advent of the “new media” is clearly having an impact.

I recently moderated a conference call for Best Practices in Corporate Communications (a resource for more than 50 Fortune 500 companies in sharing non-competitive best practices in communications), titled “Next Practices: The Future of Corporate Communications.” It was ambitious to say the least to try to tackle a topic of such scope in a session lasting just over an hour.

The panel consisted of three impressive PR pros: Best Practices in Corporate Communications (a resource for more than 50 Fortune 500 companies in sharing non-competitive best practices in communications), titled “Next Practices: The Future of Corporate Communications.” It was ambitious to say the least to try to tackle a topic of such scope in a session lasting just over an hour.

The panel consisted of three impressive PR pros: Mike Cherenson, EVP of Success Communications Group – Cherenson; Matt Shaw, VP of the Council of Public Relations Firms; and Jennifer McClure, founder and executive director of the Society for New Communications Research.

In a whirlwind tour of the future of our profession, a number of common perspectives emerged:

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Enhancing Britain’s Reputation: The Perception of Country Identity in Social Media. What Would YOU Say?

On Public Relations

By Toni Muzi Falconi

In a few days in London (February 26-27) I will be participating at a conference, organized by TMS, the Management School London, dedicated to Enhancing Britain’s Reputation Summit. Specifically I am expected to present for 20’ on the topic: the perception of country identity in social media …

This, in the context of a panel moderated by Jon White where Adam Bolton from Sky News will be talking about Electronic Media and Guy Black from the Telegraph, Times and Economist will be speaking about Print Media.

To be absolutely honest, my mind is now full of tidbits of semi ideas, but I have yet to formulate a sensible, rational and stimulating scrapbook of arguments.

So, I am taking the liberty of asking each of you to contribute with remarks, ideas, examples, experiences, arguments which you believe might help me, possibly along the following guidelines:

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Popularity: 6% [?]

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