Today’s guest post is by Sean Fleming.

Every single interaction with the public is an opportunity for you to espouse your brand’s voice and values.

If social media has done anything it has been to break down the barriers between customers and the businesses from which they buy.

Oh, and it’s also made it easy for bored married people to pretend to be young, single, and attractive while flirting with someone thousands of miles away.

But that’s another story.

As recently as only 10 years ago if a customer had a problem with their electricity supplier they might write them a letter.

Or maybe call them and risk spending far longer than they’d like listening to hold music, before finally speaking to a customer service representative who wasn’t actually empowered to do anything to help.

Not any more. Continue Reading »

I think I might be in love with Procter & Gamble chief brand building officer Marc Pritchard.

He spoke at the PR Summit – put on by The Holmes Report – in Miami last week and what he said makes me want to kiss him.

During his keynote address, he used their “Thank You, Mom” Olympic campaign as an example of successful work led by their PR firm.

You know which one I’m talking about. The one that makes you cry every time you see it.

As a reminder, watch their two minute YouTube commercial, which you saw segments of during the Olympics. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is by Daniel Tisch.

In a world where citizens, consumers, shareholders, and stakeholders walk around with global publishing power in their pockets, how does the role of public relations change – and what is the profession’s value to organizations, and to society?

That’s a question each of us needs to think about as we serve our organizations and clients.

And it’s one being tackled by the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management in a process called the Melbourne Mandate, named for the site of the upcoming Seventh World Public Relations Forum.

The GA’s members – the world’s major PR and communications professional associations – are defining and exploring three critical roles for PR: The definition of organizational character and values; the building of a culture of listening and engagement; and the fulfillment of responsibility in all its dimensions – personal, professional, corporate, and societal. Continue Reading »

As many of you know, I’m in the middle of National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) and, as of this writing, I have more than 10,000 words written.

I thought writing a novel wouldn’t be a big deal. I do, after all have a published book (cough, Marketing in the Round, cough) and I write here every, single day. I even spent three months outlining the book (which is allowed as long as you don’t write any words) and I told myself I’d just get up an hour earlier every day and write.

And that’s exactly what I’ve done.

I’ve even been keeping pace with my friends who are also participating via Facebook and Twitter. It’s been fun. But it hasn’t been easy.

I got six chapters in when, on Saturday, I decided it was all wrong and had to start over.

The image you see on this blog post is the notebook full of my notes, the outline, the characters (or xters as my college creative writing professor used to call them), and even a timeline of the past 45 years so everything makes sense chronologically. Continue Reading »

I have been prepping for today since August.

November 1. A Thursday. What’s the big deal?

Well, I let Debra Caplick talk me in to (challenge me?) participating in NaNoWriMo.

Say what?

It’s National Novel Writing Month, which gives you 30 days to write 50,000 words. And it starts today!

As it turns out, though, you can’t write the same word 50,000 times (I checked).

You also can’t submit anything you’ve already written. You have to start from scratch. The only thing you can have done before today is write an outline and do your research. Continue Reading »

How many of you have ever referred to something historical in a news release?

I know we have. It helps you tell a story about something that might otherwise be boring.

That’s what AT&T (then doing business as Cingular Wireless) did when they issued a news release about their MACH 1 and MACH 2 command centers that allow them to quickly respond to natural disasters so their customers aren’t without service for very long.

They mentioned how Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier and achieved MACH 1 in a news release that was distributed via PR Newswire. And the General sued them over the use of his name. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is by Elissa Freeman.

Dealing with difficult reporters is a necessary evil if you’re a PR pro.

But does it really have to be?

During my career I’ve developed an approach to dealing with reporters who are inherently difficult.

Sure, I’ve harboured delicious thoughts of telling a choice few just what I think of them; and these are great conversations – inside my head.

If an entity as powerful as the U.S. state department can lose the war of words with an ornery reporter, then so will you.

As someone once told me, “There’s no use fighting against an organization that buys ink by the barrel.”

Here, then, is my secret recipe for dealing with tough reporters. Continue Reading »

At the end of August, the New York Times broke the story that Lance Armstrong dropped his fight against doping charges and my Facebook and Twitter streams, inbox, and text messages were busy with, “What do you think?” and links to various articles.

I read, and responded, to them all.

And I defended the cyclist and creator of Livestrong.

My stance was, as a business owner, there have been many times we could have won a lawsuit in court (cough, Macy’s, cough), but our attorney very wisely advised to let it go because it would have put us out of business as we fought…just to prove we were right.

Sometimes you have to make decisions that are best for the health of the organization, even if it means – in the court of public opinion – it looks like you’re admitting guilt.

And that’s what I thought Lance was doing – not admitting guilt, but putting his focus on something else. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is by Julia Wall-Clarke.

Yesterday, I introduced you to media operations, specifically as it relates to the sporting world (I just wrapped up the London Summer Games).

When I first started working in media operations, I quickly found major differences from PR.

PR is very proactive.

It is a selling environment where you are constantly trying to identify opportunities and devise story angles in order to generate publicity.

Media operations is in many ways the opposite: Reactive and much more service-based, though both rely on excellent media relations skills.

At first I found it strange not to be concerned with the messaging aspects, but that is the PR department’s job and not my primary concern in these positions. Continue Reading »

Today’s guest post is by Julia Wall-Clarke.  

It is 5 a.m. and I’m already on my second coffee, standing in the middle of the Mall, watching dawn break over Buckingham Palace.

No, I haven’t been on an all-nighter with Prince Harry; it’s just another day at the London Olympics and this is my temporary office.

I graduated in PR six years ago and since then I have worked for two fabulous agencies, but have also kept an ever-increasing side career as a freelancer in media operations for sports events.

Fortunately, I had very understanding bosses who allowed me to take annual unpaid leave to help run the race-week media offices at the London, New York City, and Chicago Marathons.

I also worked the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

So what exactly is media operations? It’s never boring, that’s for sure. Continue Reading »